War movies fall into three categories. Government-funded propaganda that is designed to rally the civilian population, summer action movies that hope to thrill youngsters with exhilarating battle scenes in which good in the end triumphs over evil, and finally critical films that want to undermine the very premise that war is something anyone should desire. Iwo Jima firmly belongs to the third genre.  I cannot recall ever watching a war movie that is able to make you believe you are on the battlefield, trying to duck the bullets flying a few centimeters from your nose.  Steve Spielberg’s movie on the Allied landing on the coast of Normandy (Saving Private Ryan) went very far in showing show you what it must feel like to be on the battlefield. But Iwo Jima pulls you even closer to experiencing the fear of bodily injury and death that must grip a soldier who is surrounded by much stronger forces and who realizes that it is just a matter of time until he is killed. Spielberg’ s Saving Private Ryan movie was quite good but in the end was melodramatic, trivializing its message. Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood’s second film on the battle for this Island, is far more poetic because it draws on actual letters Japanese soldiers wrote home to their families and lovers.  Of the over 22,000 Japanese soldiers who were stationed on Iwo Jima, 20,703 died, and 216 were captured. The Allied forces suffered 25,281 casualties, with 5,598 deaths. This was the only large engagement of WWII in which the Allied forces suffered more casualties (dead plus injured) than their Japanese opponents. The battle Iwo Jima was an important episode in the war on the pacific because in the opening days of 1945 Japan faced the prospect of invasion by the American forces. Daily bomber raids from the Marianas hit the mainland as part of Operation Scavenger. Iwo Jima served as an early warning station, which radioed reports of incoming bombers back to mainland Japan, allowing Japanese air defenses to be prepared for the arrival of American bombers. That is why the Japanese military gave the instruction that the Island had to be defended as long as possible. Every soldier was asked to fight until death, either inflicted by American hands or by suicide. I am looking forward to seeing the first film by Eastwood on this battle shown Flags of Our Fathers, which shows the same fighting from the American side.

Spielberg