Letters from Iwo Jima

Theatrical Release Date: 2006 12 20 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 085391112921

Studio: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Graphic Violence, Adult Situations, Adult Language, War Violence]

Summary: After bringing the story of the American soldiers who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima to the screen in his film Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood offers an equally thoughtful portrait of the Japanese forces who held the island for 36 days in this military drama. In 1945, World War II was in its last stages, and U.S. forces were planning to take on the Japanese on a small island known as Iwo Jima. While the island was mostly rock and volcanoes, it was of key strategic value and Japan's leaders saw the island as the final opportunity to prevent an Allied invasion. Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) was put in charge of the forces on Iwo Jima; Kuribayashi had spent time in the United States and was not eager to take on the American army, but he also understood his opponents in a way his superiors did not, and devised an unusual strategy of digging tunnels and deep foxholes that allowed his troops a tactical advantage over the invading soldiers. While Kuribayashi's strategy alienated some older officers, it impressed Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), the son of a wealthy family who had also studied America firsthand as an athlete at the 1932 Olympics. As Kuribayashi and his men dig in for a battle they are not certain they can win -- and most have been told they will not survive -- their story is told both by watching their actions and through the letters they write home to their loved ones, letters that in many cases would not be delivered until long after they were dead. Among the soldiers manning Japan's last line of defense are Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker sent to Iwo Jima only days before his wife was to give birth; Shimizu (Ryo Kase), who was sent to Iwo Jima after washing out in the military police; and Lieutenant Ito (Shidou Nakamura), who has embraced the notion of "Death Before Surrender" with particular ferocity. Filmed in Japanese with a primarily Japanese cast, Letters From Iwo Jima was shot in tandem with Flags of Our Fathers, and the two films were released within two months of one another. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: War

Awards: Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Picture – American Film Institute Best Picture – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Director (Runner-up) – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Cinematography (Runner-up) – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Director (Runner-up) – New York Film Critics Society Best Director – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Picture – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Foreign Language Film – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Director – null Best Foreign Language Film – null Best Original Screenplay – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Foreign Language Film – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Director – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Original Score – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Original Score – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Cinematography – Chicago Film Critics Association Best Picture – Las Vegas Film Critics Association Best Picture – Southeastern Film Critics Association Best Foreign Language Film – Phoenix Film Critics Association Best Picture – Phoenix Film Critics Association Best Foreign Film – Utah Film Critics Best Foreign Language Film – Dallas/Fort Worth Film Critics Association Best Picture – Dallas/Fort Worth Film Critics Association Best Picture – San Diego Film Critics Association Best Director – San Diego Film Critics Association Best Picture – National Society of Film Critics Best Foreign Language Film – Kansas City Film Critics Association Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Presented – Berlin International Film Festival Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Foreign Language Film – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: Red Sun, Black Sand: The Making of Letters From Iwo Jima - An inside look at the creation of the film with all key players
The Faces of Combat: The Cast of Letters From Iwo Jima - Cast members introduce the characters they portray in the film
Images From the Frontlines: The Photography of Letters Fron Iwo Jima - A still photo montage
November 2006 world premiere at Budo-Kan in Tokyo
November 2006 press conference
Languages: Japanese with English subtitles
Other available subtitles: Fran?aus & Espa?ol (feature film only)

Letters from Iwo Jima

Format: DVD

Release Date: 05/22/2007

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 140 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Letters From Iwo Jima [Special Edition]
1. We Soldiers Dig [2:54]
2. Kuribayashi's Arrival [2:15]
3. Coordination for Real War [5:28]
4. Embarrassments [2:34]
5. Nishi's Honest Opinion [4:02]
6. Change in Strategy [6:19]
7. A Kempeitai Among Us [3:47]
8. Your Dad Will Come Home [4:33]
9. Until We Are Dead [5:59]
10. Enemy Bombs [3:05]
11. Address to the Troops [6:01]
12. Belts From Home [4:07]
13. Emptying the Pot [2:57]
14. Enemy Landing [2:47]
15. Life and Death Orders [3:19]
16. To Die With Honor [4:02]
17. Inflamed [4:47]
18. Run for Motoyama [1:53]
19. At Sword's Point [2:48]
20. Who's in Charge Here? [3:09]
21. No Reinforcements [5:32]
22. Questioning Sam [2:22]
23. Shimizu's Disgrace [4:01]
24. Farewell Party [5:18]
25. Just a Letter [2:42]
26. Nishi's Farewell [1:58]
27. Surrender With me [6:48]
28. Let This Be a Lesson [4:25]
29. You Look Familiar [5:13]
30. Song From the Homeland [3:15]
31. Final Attack [4:32]
32. Still Japan [3:47]
33. Rediscovered Voices; End Credits [6:18]

Perry Seibert

Time and again, Clint Eastwood's films have returned to the subject of killing. They try to get at the forces that enable someone to take another man's life, and in the best of his films like Unforgiven and Mystic River, he addresses the multiple ramifications of that action. With a superb script by first-time screenwriter Iris Yamashita, Letters from Iwo Jima allows Eastwood to analyze killing and death in so many different contexts, the audience is left with nothing less than a catalogue of the emotional and physical costs of war. Of the movie's many accomplishments, its capacity to utilize and subvert the clich?s of combat films might be the most noteworthy. In Letters from Iwo Jima, the Japanese soldiers have the same dreams, desires, and attitudes as every American GI from every war movie ever made. For example, early in the film a young soldier mocks his orders to dig a seemingly pointless hole, and the audience obeys its war-movie programming to sympathize with that rebellious spirit even though the character is Japanese. Anybody familiar with the genre expects the hole-digging soldier to learn the importance of following orders, and the soldier does learn his lesson, but in ways that force him to question most everything he has been taught about his people. Eastwood subverts the clich?s in order to allow the audience to sympathize with the Japanese as a whole, and he allows the actors the breathing room to create individual human beings that we care about specifically. Ken Watanabe, as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, holds the center of the film with a gravity, intelligence, humanity, and reverence that is nearly operatic in the context of the tragedy he oversees, while never once seeming larger than life. Watanabe is remarkable in every moment his character spends onscreen, always credible as an inspiring leader of men, an educated tactician, a loyal soldier, and a simple man who wishes life were different than it is. This performance embodies the spirit of Eastwood's film: a spirit that recognizes the human cost of combat, as well as the limits and necessities of living by a code of honor. Letters from Iwo Jima is the culmination of Eastwood's already-formidable directorial career, offering a fully formed statement on the motifs that have dominated his movies, and a work that will stand as one of the quintessential combat films of all time. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Kyle Eastwood  Composer (Music Score) 
Clint Eastwood  Director 
Clint Eastwood  Producer 
Steven Spielberg  Producer 
Robert Lorenz  Producer 
Paul Haggis  Executive Producer 
Iris Yamashita  Screenwriter 
Michael Stevens  Composer (Music Score) 
Ken Watanabe  Actor 
Kazunari Ninomiya  Actor 
Tsuyoshi Ihara  Actor 
Ryo Kase  Actor 
Shidou Nakamura  Actor 
Hiroshi Watanabe  Actor 
Takumi Bando  Actor 
Yuki Matsuzaki  Actor 
Takashi Yamaguchi  Actor 
Eijiro Ozaki  Actor 
Nae  Actor 
Nobumasa Sakagami  Actor 
Luke Elliot  Actor 
Sonny Saito  Actor 
Steve Santa Sekiyoshi  Actor 
Hiro Abe  Actor 
Toshiya Agata  Actor 
Yoshi Ishii  Actor 
Toshi Toda  Actor 
Ken Kensei  Actor 
Ikuma Ando  Actor 
Akiko Shima  Actor 
Masashi Nagadoi  Actor 
Mark Moses  Actor 
Roxanne Hart  Actor 
Yoshio Iizuka  Actor 
Mitsu Kurokawa  Actor 
Takuji Kuramoto  Actor 
Koji Wada  Actor 
Akira Kaneda  Actor 
Shoji Hattori  Actor 
Mark Tadashi Takahashi  Actor 
Mitsuyuki Oishi  Actor 
Evan Ellingson  Actor 
Kazuyuki Morosawa  Actor 
Masayuki Yonezawa  Actor 
Hiroshi Tom Tanaka  Actor 
Mathew Botuchis  Actor 
Yukari Black  Actor 
Daisuke Nagashima  Actor 
Kirk Enochs  Actor 
Ryan Kelley  Actor 
Jonathan Oliver Sessler  Actor 
Michael Lawson  Actor 
Taishi Mizuno  Actor 
Daisuke Tsuji  Actor 
Yoshi Ando  Actor 
Yutaka Takeuchi  Actor 
Tsuguo Mizuno  Actor 
Mark Ofuji  Actor 
Hallock Beals  Actor 
Ryan Carnes  Actor 
Jeremy Glazer  Actor 
Ryoya Katsuyama  Actor 
Masashi Odate  Actor 
London Kim  Actor 
Skip Evans  Actor 
Wanliss E. Armstrong  Actor 

Country: USA