Letters From Iwo Jima

Clint Eastwood, 2006 (8.4*)
[in Japanese w. subtitles]
Memorial Day War-a-thon Film #7
Using letters sent home to Japan during World War Two, Clint Eastwood has constructed the Japanese side of the battle for Iwo Jima island. This was filmed simultaneously with his English-language The Flags of Our Fathers, which followed the lives of some of those made famouse by the raising of the flag in that famous photo and now a statue at Arlington, so the two make a natural double-feature together.

This is all in Japanese with subtitles, as we are given excerpts of the soldiers' letters and that is mixed with live action. This presents a harrowing tale of war, in a stronghold that had miles of tunnels dug by the troops over time, so they were able to hold out a long time and move around underground, unseen on top. They were forced to live like feral animals, and vowed to fight to the death, surrender is a dishonor.

This has some amazing affects, the invasion of occupied Iwo Jima by the navy and marines, footage (obviously CGI effects) that was used in each film. Of the two, I found Letters to be the more intense, as it all takes place on the island, and mostly during the battle itself, while Flags followed the soldiers around in the state promoting war bonds long after their fighting was done.

No. 237 on the IMDB 250, winner of 17 awards

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Mystic River

Clint Eastwood, 2003 (8.6*)
This is another riveting movie from director Clint Eastwood, one of his best. Sean Penn plays a distraught father whose daughter is murdered, and his emotionally powerful performance won him his first Oscar® for best actor. Tim Robbins is also excellent in a supporting role, and also won an Oscar®. The fact that each one turned in the performance of their careers is likely due to the directing of Eastwood.

It's hard to describe this film very much without giving away too much. Suffice to say that it's a homicide mystery with a terrific cast overall, and due to the emotionally charged performances, it's one of the better films of this genre in recent years. Eastwood really hit his stride after 2000, directing arguably his best works, beginning with this film.

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Changeling

Clint Eastwood, 2008 (8.2*)
This Eastwood film is probably not as perfect as others of his recent films, such as Gran Torino and Million Dollar Baby, but thanks to Angelina Jolie's best performance it is still a rewarding crime-mystery film. She is the mother of a child who disappears while she is at work, and the L.A. police, who are corrupt and getting nothing but bad press, try to give her a different child to accept as her own in order to get some good press.

She refuses to accept the charade in spite of being incarcerated in an asylum by police order, and enlists as much help as possible to get to the truth. She receives much support from a local preacher with a radio show, John Malkovich, who agrees with her and drums up a storm of publicity on his radio program.

Without giving away too much, this gets pretty creepy (of the flesh crawling type), and is based on a true late 20's crime case, with only the standard "some characters are fictitious", while Clint claims that 95% of the story presented is based on historical documents. The film's only real weakness is that is runs about 20 minutes too long at 2:20, with several anticlimatic epilogues - every time you think it's over we get more followup. This story is tough to review spoiler-free.

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Invictus

Clint Eastwood, 2009 (7.5*)

Not one of Clint's best as director, a by-the-numbers sports film which contains little drama or conflict to pull the viewer in. Morgan Freeman, who produced, is excellent as Nelson Mandela, even somewhat resembling him physically, and garnering another best actor Oscar® nomination. Newly elected, his country is still torn apart racially, so he sees the upcoming 1995 rugby World Cup, being held in South Africa, as a potentially unifying event. Their rugby team, though world ranked, is being manhandled by better teams like England.

President Mandala calls in the team's captain, blandly played by Matt Damon, who does little here to convince skeptics that he can act (in spite of a supporting actor Oscar® nomination, where the heck did that come from?) to his office for an inspirational meeting. Damon has little do other than play rugby and tell his players "we can do better for our country". If you don't know this story or the outcome, it may have a little suspense for you, but it seems to be directed as if everyone knows the outcome, here's the 'behind the scenes' inspiration.

Don't expect to learn much about rugby here, but you will learn something more about South African racially motivated politics. All in all, a pleasant but forgettable sports film. Good for soccer junkies disappointed that the 2010 World Cup is now over.

Quote: Soccer is a gentlemen's game played by hooligans, rugby is a hooligan's game played by gentlemen.

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Gran Torino

Clint Eastwood, 2008 (8.7*)
This is just another gripping and hard-hitting modern drama from actor-director Clint Eastwood, who seems to improve with age like a fine Carmel area wine. Here he appropriately plays a hardened, grizzled Korean war veteran whose wife has just died. His neighborhood is now mostly southeast Asian immigrants from the Hmong culture, a mountain tribe there. He avoids them, they mouth off about him under their breaths. Things change when a local Hmong street gang starts putting pressure on his neighbor's son Thao, played by Bee Vang, and Eastwood helps keep the gang from kidnapping him by showing up in the yard with his loaded rifle from the war.

From then on, he's broken through the cultural barriers and the Hmongs all now respect him, a stranger who came to their aid. His gruff facade is gradually broken down by Thao's sister Sue, an intelligent and straightforward teenage girl, superbly played by Ahney Her; she simply doesn't accept his rejections, and is persistant in an unassuming way. She quickly becomes a closer friend to him than his own relations, who seem to consider him an aging inconvenience.

The Gran Torino of the title sits in Clint's garage, and is something he once worked on at the nearby auto plant; it's also something the gang, his granddaughter, and Thao all admire. Here, it become's a metaphor of an idealistic America of the past, when things were well made and people took pride in making them - much happier and more secure times, with ideals worth holding onto; for Clint, he can at least hold onto the car, keeping it in mint condition as life deteriorates all around. This is a very gripping, believable drama, one that should have been up for the best picture Oscar, as Clint was for directing; he even wrote the title song, played over the closing credits.

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Unforgiven

Clint Eastwood, 1992 (8.4*)
Best Picture (AA)
AFI/Time Top 100
This is a violent and unforgiving western, and the best one in the long career of director-actor Clint Eastwood, and earned him a Best Director Oscar. This was his first best picture, followed by Million Dollar Baby. The story involves a cowboy cutting up a woman with a knife and being protected by a corrupt sheriff, brilliantly played by Gene Hackman in an Oscar-winning supporting role. Retired gunslinger Eastwood is hired to seek vengance and what follows is a relentless pursuit similar to John Ford’s The Searchers. Morgan Freeman, as a friend of Eastwood’s, is also terrific as usual, and look for Richard Harris as the “Duke of Death”. Good western, not sure if it’s the year’s best film (I preferred Robert Altman's The Player that year), it likely gets overrated due to Eastwood's popularity. If you like this, check out Kevin Costner’s brilliant Open Range. Four Oscars.

Note: NOT to be confused with John Huston’s 1960 western,The Unforgiven with Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn. Either too bad or a good thing: you can’t copyright a title - hence the film Crash, by J.G. Ballard with James Spader and Holly Hunter as crash survivors involved in s-m, and the more recent Crash, the boring police drama with Matt Dillon in what resembled a tv police show yet somehow won best picture as well due to a lack of competition.

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Million Dollar Baby

Dir: Clint Eastwood, 2004 (9.1*)
Best Picture (AA)
This hard-hitting boxing film is based on a true story and is Eastwood’s best as director, and was his 2nd best picture Oscar® winner after 92's Unforgiven. I'm puzzled it isn't on more all-time best lists. Hilary Swank, in an amazing Oscar-winning supporting performance, convinces jaded manager Eastwood and his trainer, Morgan Freeman (also an Oscar winner), to give her a shot and train her for a pro boxing career. What follows can’t be described without spoilers, but suffice to say that this deserved the Best Picture Oscar it won, as well as all the acting accolades. Either this or Raging Bull is the best boxing film yet made; Bull had the style, Baby has the heart. 4 Oscars®

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