Letters from Iwo Jima (Special Edition) (2-DVD) R
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DVD Details
- Number of Discs: 2
- Rated: R
- Run Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes
- Video: Color
- Encoding: Region 1 (USA & Canada)
- Released: May 22, 2007
- Originally Released: 2006
- Label: Warner Home Video
Performers, Cast and Crew:
Starring | Ken Watanabe, Takeshi Yamaguchi, Hiroshi Watanabe, Shido Nakamura & Tsuyosi Ihara | |
Directed by | Clint Eastwood | |
Edited by | Joel Cox & Gary Roach | |
Screenplay by | Iris Yamashita | |
Composition by | Clint Eastwood | |
Produced by | Robert Lorenz | |
Director of Photography: | Tom Stern | |
Executive Production by | Paul Haggis |
Entertainment Reviews:
[A]s a seasoned film-maker, he can render action -- especially sudden death or suicide -- as disorientating as it's startling.
Sight and Sound
Rating: 3/5 --
The moral is hardly original. The scale certainly is. Only a director of Eastwood's standing could possibly terrify enough producers into financing this decidedly foreign, but impressively chunky, white elephant.
Full Review
Times (UK)
[P]rofound, magisterial, and gripping....LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA enthralls in the audacity of its simplicity. -- Grade: A
Entertainment Weekly
Rating: 3/5 --
Eastwood and his cinematographer Tom Stern have done a superb and possibly unique job in showing both sides of this dreadful battle, and the pair of films together already look monumental.
Full Review
Independent (UK)
Rating: 4/5 --
The whole is a more satisfactory entity than Flags of Our Fathers - and the final scene, which has veterans and relatives scouring the tunnels and caves for the buried letters, is a suitably moving coda.
London Evening Standard
You realize how very young many of these men were, and how ill-suited to be turned into killing machines.
Full Review
The New York Review of Books
Rating: 4/4 --
In coming to understand the point of view of the opposing side, Eastwood has crafted two masterful and distinct films who are still inexorably intertwined that speak to the simple humanity in all of us.
Full Review
The Dispatch (Lexington, NC)
Product Description:
Clint Eastwood's companion piece to FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS is again set during World War II. But in LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, he looks at the war from the Japanese perspective, using Japanese dialogue. With American forces on their way, General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe, THE LAST SAMURAI) arrives on the island to find his troops woefully under-trained and hopelessly outmatched. Japanese pop and television star Kazunari Ninomiya plays Saigo, a young soldier who asks, "Am I digging my own grave'" as he creates trenches. With no hope of reinforcements, these men have little hope of leaving the island alive.
Eastwood and director of photography Tom Stern paint their picture in a palette of taupes and grays. The landscape of the volcanic island is desolate, providing a hellish experience for the stationed soldiers but a stark beauty for the audience. With this bleak setting, LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA is a powerful ode to duty in dire circumstances. General Kuribayashi and Saigo provide the emotional center of the film, giving a glimpse into the minds of both seasoned officers and drafted novices. Eastwood doesn't deal in simple heroes and villains; these characters are sympathetic and real, whether their motives are pride, fear, or loyalty to their country. Though only the Academy-Award-nominated Watanabe is a familiar face to American audiences, each of the actors involved displays his experience working in Japanese film, television, and theater. The battle scenes are breathtaking and brutal, but it's the actors who are the core of the film. The picture has the standard tropes found in any modern war film, like verbal abuse by a superior and battle scenes filled with severed limbs. But Eastwood goes beyond the war-movie boilerplate with this impressive film that deserves every accolade it earns.
Eastwood and director of photography Tom Stern paint their picture in a palette of taupes and grays. The landscape of the volcanic island is desolate, providing a hellish experience for the stationed soldiers but a stark beauty for the audience. With this bleak setting, LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA is a powerful ode to duty in dire circumstances. General Kuribayashi and Saigo provide the emotional center of the film, giving a glimpse into the minds of both seasoned officers and drafted novices. Eastwood doesn't deal in simple heroes and villains; these characters are sympathetic and real, whether their motives are pride, fear, or loyalty to their country. Though only the Academy-Award-nominated Watanabe is a familiar face to American audiences, each of the actors involved displays his experience working in Japanese film, television, and theater. The battle scenes are breathtaking and brutal, but it's the actors who are the core of the film. The picture has the standard tropes found in any modern war film, like verbal abuse by a superior and battle scenes filled with severed limbs. But Eastwood goes beyond the war-movie boilerplate with this impressive film that deserves every accolade it earns.
Keywords:
Death
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True Story
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World War II
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Epic
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Military
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Historical
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Theatrical Release
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Japan
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Soldiers
Product Info
- Sales Rank: 128,085
- UPC: 085391112921
- Shipping Weight: 0.27/lbs (approx)
- International Shipping: 2 items