In the midst of the second world war, Japan continues to fight and defend the island of Iwo Jima. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi arrives to take charge, and faces some resistance as some of his subordinates believe that he is an incompetent American sympathizer. The story also follows the daily life of likeable soldier Saigo, and his struggles to cope with the war. The film centers around preparations for what most believe will be a suicide mission.

            Clint Eastwood has crafted a surprisingly fair realization of the other side, making sure not to make the Japanese seem inhumane, and especially to not make the Americans seem too humane. Eastwood’s companion piece to last year’s underwhelming “Flags of our Fathers” centers much more on the actual battle, choosing not to flash back from the present, and as a result offer a clearer lens through which the war can be seen.

             The film is very much sympathetic to the Japanese side, not necessarily their endgame but rather their methods and intentions, which in this case is both a nice surprise from the filmmaker as well as a great cinematic choice. Ken Watanabe, as General Kuribayashi, and Kazunari Ninomiya, as Saigo, are a large part of the very much excellent ensemble. The film, almost entirely in Japanese, has a very authentic, real feel to it, with occasional flashbacks providing a sufficient, but not burdensome, amount of background information to make the characters both understandable and sympathetic.

             Certain scenes are difficult to watch due to their outright violence, but overall the violence is appropriate and not excessive for a war film. The film suffers slightly due to the relative lack of action in the first hour or so, and the runtime of almost two and a half hours drags. Luckily, the film’s second half is the more compelling, and it’s certainly worth staying until the film’s end.

The Bottom Line is that Clint Eastwood’s “Letters from Iwo Jima” is a fine war film made about the Japanese from an American director with a surprising evenhandedness to it. The lengthy film drags a bit, but is certainly a notable improvement on Eastwood’s earlier companion piece “Flags of our Fathers.”