But when it comes to the other side, all we have are history books. The propaganda of the day would paint the Japanese as savages and those of us back home accepted it as such. We didn't know, we weren't over there. Other countries have

    Unlike 'Flags', an almost great movie that got bogged down in its own self importance, 'Letters' is a straight up war movie. It starts 50 years later, when historians are digging through the massive web of tunnels inside the island and happen to stumble across something in the ground. Cut back to 1945, and Japan is preparing for an out and out assault upon Iwo Jima, a key island America would utilize in the firebombings across Japan.

    Battles are won by generals, but fought by soldiers, or so the saying goes. The general is Kuribayashi, played by the only recognizable actor, the indomitable Ken Watanabe. He was trained in America, so he knows from the get go that this will be a losing battle. "America's technological achievements cannot be understated." he warns a colonel. His Kuribayashi is a cool, confident man, a charismatic leader that the men can easily relate to. He's also deathly intelligent and throws out traditional beach warfare (a la trenches) for a more subversive type of tunnel fighting, which allows for quicker troop

    Kazunari Ninomiya plays Saigo, a regular grunt who was drafted into this whole mess. He doesn't want to be there at all and longs only to see his wife and newborn child, whom he has not even met yet. Ninomiya, a J-Pop star, is quite effective in showing how the little man gets swept aside in times of war. We've seen his character a thousand different war movies and as such, we can easily relate to him because he is just this regular guy thrust into a circumstance beyond his understanding.

    Stylistically, Eastwood follows a very faux-documentary feel. He drains the color out and relies on a healthy dollop of shaky cam. During one aerial raid scene, I was getting dizzy at the movements of the camera. There's a near constant barrage of violence for the last hour and half or so, but 'Letters' is not as violent a movie as one would expect about a battle where only 1000 of 20,000 troops survived. What battles do occur are fast, furious and very, very fatal.

    Perhaps the most unsettling thing about the film, to an American audience, is that for once, we are shown to be the faceless mass. This further serves the theme of identity in wartime, and how, in order to effectively, a soldier has to see the enemy as something less than human, something faceless. Even when Saigo confronted by a platoon of Americans near the end, we don't get a clear look at any of them. Seeing one's people as the enemy is a bit hard to stomach at times, but when in war, you have to be fighting someone.

    Gone is the "no man left behind" theme of American war films. 'Letters' replaces that with "you are not going home, so get used to it." One scene depicts Saigo's entire unit, having failed to hold Mount Suribachi, blowing themselves up even after the order to retreat back has been given. To die with honor is the greatest glory a Japanese soldier can receive, and they will charge in suicidally or blow themselves up with grenades to get there. To come home in one piece would be to bring shame upon one's family. In most war films, you know a few people aren't

    With 'Letters From Iwo Jima' (so called because of the letters the soldiers write to their families), Eastwood completes his account of the battle. Iwo Jima has, in recent times, been mythologized. 'Flags of Our Fathers' sought to humanize the actions of the men who fought, but failed with a very unclear structure. 'Letters From Iwo Jima' succeeds in every possible way over its predecessor, its characters are more personal, its story more manageable and its power more visceral and real. If at all possible, see one right after another. But, if time permits you to see only one, see 'Letters From Iwo Jima'. If you take away anything from it, it's that the more things change, the more they stay the same. War is war, no matter what side of the conflict you're on...and it will always be that way.

deployment and maximum safety to carnage ratio. In one scene, when a lieutenant reports that the beaches have been overtaken, you can see a glimmer of smugness in Kuribayashi's eye.

coming back, but there are times when you doubt anyone will survive this. Worse still is that by killing themselves off, the soldiers only worsen the situation. No one served their country by dying for it, after all.