Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

Director : Clint Eastwood.
Genere : History / War / Drama.
Cast : Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase.
Rating : Classic
War always is one sided, and so is any war movie. It is usual for a war movie to show enemies as demonic characters who is willing to do any inhuman things to kill the good or specifically the side where the camera is placed. So Clint Eastwood used two movies “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” to show both sides. “Letters from Iwo Jima” stands by the Japanese side and their struggle to survive. The movie tells the story of Japanese soldiers fought on Iwo Jima through the letters unearthed from a Japanese Second World War tunnel in Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima is nothing but a volcanic island with no fresh water or food but strategically importance of Iwo Jima is vital for this war. Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was send not to win the war but to hold Iwo Jima as long as he could. He knows well that they are outnumbered and is in a no win situation. So he develops a strategy to make victory difficult for the enemy.

Unlike a usual Hollywood movie here the enemies are the Americans, the greatest encroachers of all time. The movie is told through the stories of Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), Shimizu (Ryo Kase), Lieutenant Ito (Shidou Nakamura) and Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) which they performed to their finest. Iris Yamashita the screen writer has done a wonderful job and Eastwood was bold enough to use the Japanese language rather than making the Japanese soldiers speak English. “Letters from Iwo Jima” shows us the sacrifice and hardship of Japanese soldiers during the war and lets us think that even enemies are men and have life and reasons just like the others. Also recommends its counterpart “Flags of Our Fathers”.

Rear Window (1954)

Director : Alfred Hitchcock.
Genere : Thriller / Drama / Crime.
Cast : James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr.
Rating : Master piece
Voyeurism is in human nature, people likes sneak each other’s life whenever they get the opportunity, whether it’s in the form of a novel, a movie or even through your window- it’s the same. It is this very nature that makes “Rear Window” remarkable. L. B. Jefferies played by James Stewart is an adventurous photographer who can’t simply shut his curious eyes and sleep, just because his one leg is broke and trapped in his little apartment on a wheel chair. He becomes obsessed in watching his neighbors through their open windows and raised blinds. It is almost like watching a television with multiple channels. Soon he becomes suspicious that one of his neighbors might have killed his wife and disposed her of in pieces. He tries to find it out.

This is a well crafted movie with a little bit of everything for a perfect entertainer a suspense to discover which keep the thrill, a conflicting and “too perfect” romance, timely humor, and a cold blooded murder(without showing even a single drop of blood). Above all what makes “Rear window really fantastic is both the audience and the lead character is stuck to a chair and helpless. They can only sit and watch what is happening before their eyes. The camera never leaves Jefferies and most of the time it’s in his apartment so it only sees or hears what he sees or hears. With perfect script, brilliant acting and a fantastic cinematography, “Rear Window” is arguably a masterpiece from the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.