USA: Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood talks to Reuters about his critically acclaimed new movie, "Letters From Iwo Jima"

Clint Eastwood's latest directorial project, "Letters from Iwo Jima" tell the Japanese side of a battle that became a symbol of U.S. patriotism, but for Japan was a bitter memory of defeat. Named best film of 2006 by the National Board of Review and by the LA Film Critics Circle "Letters from Iwo Jima" is the second of two Eastwood films about the 1945 battle, engraved in U.S. memory by a photo of six servicemen raising the flag on the island's Mount Suribachi. The first, "Flags of Our Fathers," is the tale of three of the Americans who raised the flag and later became propaganda tools in a campaign to sell U.S. war bonds. Eastwood talked about making the two films. "When you make them, you just think you make them and then its up to fate to see where they are going to end up in the perspective of things. I liked doing them both for different reasons. They are both different styles of films. One of course is much larger than the other in terms of logistics. It took us to a lot of places. The other is more intimate film and subterranean and has all kinds of elements to it. Letters is more on the linear side so it was easier to unravel." Starring Ken Watanabe as Lieutenant-General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, commander of the Japanese forces in the epic World War Two battle, "Letters" focuses on the Japanese defenders. Central to the film are Kuribayashi, who had served as a military attaché in the United States and himself had little hope of victory, and Saigo, a young baker who is drafted and forced to leave his pregnant wife but vows to return home alive. The title refers to letters the two men, both loving husbands and fathers, write to their families as they prepare for battle. Eastwood worked with a primarily Japanese speaking cast and crew. So is he fluent in Japanese? "Of course I am. (laughs) No I am not. I don't speak Japanese but I have been around for a long time. Acting is acting. Story telling is story telling and its not much different . I must say it was fun because of the cultural differences and the language and everything was right. Ken Watanabe was a great help and all the actors were a great help and very conscientious actors," said Eastwood. For many Japanese, the battle that killed 6,800 U.S. Marines and 21,000 Japanese has long been a tragedy best forgotten. The first scrap of Japan's native soil invaded in the war, Iwo Jima -- "Sulphur Island" -- was coveted by the Americans as a base for fighters escorting B-29 bombers headed for the mainland. Eastwood said it's a story that had to be told. "In 'Letters of Iwo Jima' its important not only for the Japanese but also the rest of the world to know what people were facing then. We all know it because of the propaganda that was popular at that time and the Japanese military expansionist government of that time but we don't know it from the common man. The kind of person ripped away from their home and their family and the great probability of never seeing them again," said Eastwood. And what was the overall message of the two films. "I think both of them add up to the same thing that war is not a great thing. I grew up with when war is romanticized and it was part of a propaganda aspect and I don't think. Certainly there is something romantic about the adventures of war historically and in entertainment but by and large the violence of war is not a comedic thing. it is a very painful thing and it boils down in both pictures that young men being sent off to pay the ultimate sacrifice on many occasions long before their time," said Eastwood. "Letters from Iwo Jima" is already out in Japan and will be out in theatres in the United States in early January.

ITN Source | December 21, 2006

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