Review of Letters from Iwo Jima

One of the good things about Letters from Iwo Jima is that it's not trying to glorify the horrors of war - Rather it's trying to show that despite all the propaganda and the like, both sides of war are human beings, not savages or beasts. The movie does a pretty good job(although I'm not sure how authentically) at giving us a perspective of a common Japanese conscript fighting for his life against American Forces at Iwo Jima. One of the central themes for the Imperial Japanese Forces it seems was to die with honor. This presents a paradox between basic self-preservation and group social pressures. It's easy to relate to the main character's drive for survival while harder to see the reason for dying with honor and dignity in suicide. But then, war doesn't seem to be an honorable, reasonable, or dignified situation in any case - and maybe that's part of the point. This was a sad movie perhaps meant to emphasize the human costs of war relevant just as much now as it was in the time it depicted. Especially good was Kazunari Ninomiya as the main character whose frightful expressions of pain, surprise, horror, and sadness were believable. Pretty good, but definitely leaves you disquieted.