Letters from Iwo Jima

Clint Eastwood directed a couple WWII pictures around the same time, Flags of our Fathers, and Letters from Iwo Jima. Letters from Iwo Jima is from the Japanese prospective of the battle for Iwo Jima. Ken Watanabe leads a solid, if not unrecognizable cast that does an excellent job of portraying the unimaginable plight of the Japanese soldier. Your Emperor expects you to fight and win despite having inferior everything. If you can't win, then you should die, because that's what's honorable. It displays interesting parts of Japanese culture and is very entertaining despite it's educational value. I love Ken Watanabe personally. Anytime you need an Asian male actor I think the list starts with him. He plays the role of the General in charge of defending the island of Iwo Jima despite getting NO help from Japan. Iwo Jima was historically important because it was the last Pacific Island before the mainland of Japan. Once America conquered Iwo Jima, it could begin bombing runs on the Japan mainland (kind of a big deal). You are painfully watching the desperate scramble to hold on to the small piece of land to the death, because that is the only possible outcome.

Bottom Line: 7.8 out of 10. Skewed because I'm a history/ WWII fan, so it's probably a bit high.