Make no mistake: This movie stars Japanese actors and it's spoken in Japanese, but it's still an American movie. A Clint Eastwood movie. You can see that in the pace, the way the characters are laid out and the story itself. Unlike war movies made by Americans, with American's point of view, there's an emotional detachment palpable in this movie. It's hard to understand, and I know soldier's both sides have similar values. It's just the values of the soldiers on this movie seemed to me... American. The straightforward thinking, the subtle cockiness, the lack of comfort with silence of these soldiers is something I've never seen in any Japanese film. Again, the pace it's pure Eastwood. The brutality we're used to see in war films since -this film's producer -Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" is absent. It's less action, more character. Very Eastwood. But in the end, this is how I imagine a war movie, where the Americans are directed by a foreigner.
Review of Letters from Iwo Jima
