What dying on Iwo Jima is like

Of course we all know that war is a very bad thing, and I would certainly not credit a movie for shouting this blatant truth into my ears. But "Letters from Iwo Jima" is not like that: it's a well-told, beautifully shot and subtle movie about ordinary people who are trapped on an island, facing fearful odds against an enormous fleet that stretches out to the horizon.

The ones being trapped are a division of Japanese soldiers, entrenched in the barren soil of Iwo Jima, in 1944, and the enormous fleet obviously belongs to the Americans.

Yet, the Americans are not just enemies. At least not for the general of the Japanese, who studied in the USA and has close American friends. Towards the end of the movie he reads aloud a letter of an American pow to his Japanese men. It’s a touching letter, proving the American to be a lot like themselves. The general attains his object: ‘I thought Americans were monsters,’ says one of his men, ‘but they are not.’

However, the movie luckely doesn’t want us, or the japanese, to believe that americans are nothing but noble – next thing we see are two of them killing off some japanese pow’s.

Appearances are deceptive: this might be the film’s motto. We get to know some japanese soldiers a little better, through flash-backs and their letters, which are (I think) real historical documents. Gradually we need to adjust our ideas of their characters, as the coward appears not so cowardly and the ruthless one proves not so ruthless.

But then again, one thing is clear as can be: war really is a very bad thing. This movie’s stylish bleak imagery may not hammer its message into the audience, but it speaks all the louder.