Letters from Iwo-Jima

Discussion for anything non-gaming.
Post Reply
User avatar
ratperson665
Captain
Posts: 421
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:12 pm
Favorite Game: Suikoden 2
Kojima games owned: Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of liberty
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Metal Gear Acid
Snatcher(Sega CD)
Policenauts(PSX)
Metal Gear(Subsistence Version)
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake(Subsistence Version)
Location: Mercer Island, WA, USA

Letters from Iwo-Jima

Post by ratperson665 »

I just saw this movie at a theater in Bellevue Square and it was one of the saddest and most revealing movies I've ever seen! It really showed that a lot of the Japanese soldiers during WW2 where decent people who where just brainwashed by there government into thinking the allies where bad and that many of them where asking the same questions we where. "When will this war end?" "When will there be peace?" "When will I be able to go home and see my family again?" Classic WW2 sagas like Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers make it look like the Japanese where all evil and that the U.S.A was all good. But that wasn't the case. While we where in the right in that war there where definitely some bad people on our side too and the Japanese weren’t all bad either.
"Don't worry I got an idea. An Idea so smart my head would explode if I even began to know what I was taking about."-Peter Griffin
User avatar
Henry Spencer
General
Posts: 1380
Joined: Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:07 am
Favorite Game: Shenmue I, MGS, Snatcher, Zelda: Ocarina Of Time.
Kojima games owned: Metal Gear (NES)
Metal Gear: Ghost Babel (GB)
Metal Gear Solid (PSX)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (PS2)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (PS2)
Policenauts (Saturn/PSX/3DO)
Snatcher (PC Engine/Mega CD)
Zone Of The Enders (PS2)
Zone Of The Enders 2: Special Edition (PS2)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl; it counts, right? ;P
PSN: henryspencer666
Xbox Live: Magiking
Location: Right Behind You
Contact:

Re: Letters from Iwo-Jima

Post by Henry Spencer »

ratperson665 wrote:I just saw this movie at a theater in Bellevue Square and it was one of the saddest and most revealing movies I've ever seen! It really showed that a lot of the Japanese soldiers during WW2 where decent people who where just brainwashed by there government into thinking the allies where bad and that many of them where asking the same questions we where. "When will this war end?" "When will there be peace?" "When will I be able to go home and see my family again?" Classic WW2 sagas like Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers make it look like the Japanese where all evil and that the U.S.A was all good. But that wasn't the case. While we where in the right in that war there where definitely some bad people on our side too and the Japanese weren’t all bad either.
About SPR, it depends how you look at it, Spielberg is known to be a guy totally against violence on the whole, like he has shown with his masterpiece, Munich. I saw SPR as a struggle of seven men to survive the war, not to fight in it. The great thing about SPR is, everybody has something different to say about it, it's a great film to discuss with others.

Letters Of Iwo Jima may just be the surprise winner of the Oscars if the film succeeds in bringing sorrow out of the most Patriotic of Americans who fought against them in the same war. Let's look at it like this though, Eastwood stated he made the film with the Japanese in mind, so I hope they take it all in and accept it.
Marc
General
Posts: 3379
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:46 am

Post by Marc »

I read a news article on the reception of the film in Japan, where Iwo Jima isn't talked about very much. The Japanese seem to like the film a lot. Many of them cried during the movie.
User avatar
Mr. F
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:29 pm
Favorite Game: MGS2
Kojima games owned: -Metal Gear Solid
-Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Substance
-Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater/Subsistence
-Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
-Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
-Metal Gear AC!D
-Snatcher
-Zone of the Enders
-Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner
-Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars
Location: Massachusetts

Post by Mr. F »

Osiris wrote:Many of them cried during the movie.
No make-up for me when seeing this then!

How was Flags of Our Fathers? Is it necessary to watch that before seeing Letters?
User avatar
Snake Plissken
Major
Posts: 573
Joined: Sat Oct 09, 2004 6:01 am
Favorite Game: Mega Man 2
Location: Busted Kiddy Pool In The Front Yard
Contact:

Post by Snake Plissken »

Mr. F wrote:
Osiris wrote:Many of them cried during the movie.
No make-up for me when seeing this then!

How was Flags of Our Fathers? Is it necessary to watch that before seeing Letters?
Flags of Our Fathers was pretty good, but I'd watch "Letters" first. It was a touching piece indeed (far better), and it's a shame that it was only released in limited round compared to "Flags."
ratperson665 wrote: Classic WW2 sagas like Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers make it look like the Japanese where all evil and that the U.S.A was all good.
But actually the Japanese "were" evil sons of bitches... well it's Gov. was because afterall Japan signed the "Tripartite Pact" (along with Nazi Germany and Italy), ensuring a concrete alliance promising to aid and defend eachother encase either three were to engage in war with the USA. And once Pearl harbor happened: Italy, Germany, and Japan declared war on the USA as a whole. Gangbang style.

Overall though, these modern WWII epics are merely trying to show us that it did not matter who's Gov, cause, or faction they were actually fighting for -but the honor, chivalry, and bonding which these soldiers carried with and against one another in battle. Heck, Band of Brothers stresses how even those nasty Nazis surrendered like gentlemen.
Image
Marc
General
Posts: 3379
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:46 am

Post by Marc »

I saw it tonight. It's a great film. Makes me think that if only every soldier on every side didn't agree to fight, people wouldn't have to die needlessly like that. Also reminds me of a Roger Waters song:

ROGER WATERS
The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range

You have a natural tendency
To squeeze off a shot
You're good fun at parties
You wear the right masks
You're old but you still
Like a laugh in the locker room
You can't abide change
You're at home an the range
You opened your suitcase
Behind the old workings
To show off the magnum
You deafened the canyon
A comfort a friend
Only upstaged in the end
By the Uzi machine gun
Does the recoil remind you
Remind you of sex
Old man what the hell you gonna kill next
Old timer who you gonna kill next
I looked over Jordan and what did I see
Saw a U.S. Marine in a pile of debris
I swam in your pools
And lay under your palm trees
I looked in the eyes of the Indian
Who lay on the Federal Building steps
And through the range finder over the hill
I saw the frontline boys popping their pills
Sick of the mess they find
On their desert stage
And the bravery of being out of range
Yeah the question is vexed
Old man what the hell you gonna kill next
Old timer who you gonna kill next
Hey bartender over here
Two more shots
And two more beers
Sir turn up the TV sound
The war has started on the ground
Just love those laser guided bombs
They're really great
For righting wrongs
You hit the target
And win the game
From bars 3,000 miles away
3,000 miles away
We play the game
With the bravery of being out of range
We zap and maim
With the bravery of being out of range
We strafe the train
With the bravery of being out of range
We gained terrain
With the bravery of being out of range
With the bravery of being out of range
We play the game
With the bravery of being out of range
Missing
Second Lieutenant
Posts: 393
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 1:09 am

Post by Missing »

It was a pretty good film overall, and I liked Eastwood's respect for both sides of the battle, but I think the screenplay was a tad too sentimental at times. Many moments felt scripted for emotional impact and would play out exactly as I expected (the scene with the dog, for instance). I just never got that weepy-eyed feeling that Eastwood and Haggis were obviously striving for, even though the message itself was clear.

And while it would be shallow of me to criticize the special effects, considering they weren't the film's priority, I never got the sense that it was as grand a battle as you'd read in the history books. Much of the film was secluded to only a small number of characters, with most of the action occuring in caves. You don't get that great a prospect of the battle that's ensuing on the outside, except for hearing gunfire and artillery in the distance.

The biggest problem with Iwo Jima is, when you stack this film up against films that have been made by the Japanese, which feature their own first-hand accounts of the war (films like Fires on the Plain, Under the Flag of the Rising Sun, Black Rain, and Grave of the Fireflies), the impact of Iwo Jima isn't as strong because Eastwood doesn't delve as deeply into the ugliness of the war in the Pacific. Too much of that reality feels glossed over in favor of showing us a more sympathetic side to the Japanese.

On the other hand, a film like Saving Private Ryan shows us the absolute brutality from all sides and how there are no real codes of conduct in a battlefield. There's less of that artificiality (at least until the end of the film).
User avatar
Ghaleon
Runner
Posts: 126
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:17 am
Location: Cleveland/columbus

Post by Ghaleon »

This is kind of an aside, but the book Flags of Our Fathers is really fantastic, as is the author's (James Bradley) second book, Flyboys. Probably the best nonfiction I've ever read (I'm pretty into WWII, my grandpa was an ace),

I didn't see the movie FooF (what an acronym) or Letters yet, check out the books if you're interested in the material. It sounds like the movies are a pretty different portrayal (which is good though -- can't just take a book page by page and expect a good film).
BIG BOSS
Post Reply