One must give Eastwood a good deal of credit ... To make a film about the suffering "your" soldiers endure is one thing, to make one about the horrors inflicted on the "enemy" is something else again.

| Feb 14, 2021

Infinitely more compelling than its predecessor, yet equally lengthy and ill-paced.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 21, 2020

A subdued masterpiece with a unique perspective on war.

| Original Score: A- | Nov 21, 2019

In coming to understand the point of view of the opposing side, Eastwood has crafted two masterful and distinct films who are still inexorably intertwined that speak to the simple humanity in all of us.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 6, 2019

You realize how very young many of these men were, and how ill-suited to be turned into killing machines.

| Aug 23, 2018

Modern-day echoes of being snookered into a bad war aren't lost on Clint Eastwood, and "Letters from Iwo Jima" delivers an overwhelmingly powerful eulogy for the death of righteousness in combat on either side of the line.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 19, 2010

Not an anti-war tract or a glorification but, rather, a fair consideration of humanity that exists within the inhumanity of armed conflict.

| Oct 23, 2009

Eastwood's cinema is one of resolutely moral images

| Aug 28, 2009

Eastwood is a master of the extended look (this comes from the two directors he acknowledges as his own masters, Sergio Leone and Don Siegel), the look that stretches time and that is blinded by what it sees.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 23, 2009

War is hell, always has been, and movies will continue to confirm it for anyone who might doubt. In this case, though, Letters only shows that for all the different perspective the other side of a war could have, it's the same old movie clichés.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 20, 2008

Eastwood's direction is a thing of beauty, blending unblinking ferocity with fragile delicacy.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Feb 28, 2008

Both technical grace and an efficient ensemble smooth over some...clunky plotting.

| Dec 1, 2007

A fine, textured study of war, one that considers the strategic side as well as the human side without sacrificing either.

| Original Score: A | Sep 24, 2007

Watching the film, I had admiration for what Eastwood and his writers were attempting, but I remained at arm's length. I'm not entirely sure why I could not buy into the film.

| Original Score: B- | Jul 14, 2007

Much as already been made about the pride and honor of the Japanese, but as a people they have rarely, if ever, been depicted as fully human characters in American war movies. It's amazing to think what Clint Eastwood has done here.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 14, 2007

... Eastwood takes this film out of the realm of a typical war picture to illuminate the boundless nature of the human spirit, which extends far beyond race and nationality.

| Jul 11, 2007

In Letters, the glossy romanticism of history crumbles before our very eyes.

| Jul 3, 2007

Eastwood has made a film that is thoughtful, poignant, touching, and philosophical. It stands as one of the best works in his long, illustrious career.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 23, 2007

A Japanese war flick comprised of contrasting character portraits of soldiers torn between dying with honor and the very human instinct of self-preservation.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 22, 2007

...a sad, lonely, melancholic film, for all its brutal action and bloodshed, with moments of sheer poetry and others of heartbreaking grief.

| Original Score: 9/10 | May 14, 2007