Letters from Iwo Jima

Video:
Watching both "Flags of Our Fathers" on Blu-ray and the sister film "Letters from Iwo Jima" on the same format was a very pleasing experience. The 2.40:1 widescreen image is beautifully presented with VC-1/1080p mastering. This film is absolutely stunning in its clarity and level of detail and the desaturated hues used to stylize and visually tie this film to "Flags of Our Fathers" are again perfectly presented, except for one minor flaw during one relatively short sequence. I´ll get to that in a minute. The level of detail in "Letters from Iwo Jima" easily place this title in the upper echelon of transfers. Warner Bros. has routinely surprised me with many of their catalog titles and new releases and "Letters from Iwo Jima" wasn´t really a surprise in its visually impressive transfer because of the strength of Paramount´s "Flags of Our Fathers" transfer, but I was pleased none-the-less.

Both of Eastwood´s two films have a style that is reminiscent of the work done by Producer Steven Spielberg in his little war film, "Saving Private Ryan." Colors are heavily desaturated and have an aged and stylistic look that falls somewhere between Techicolor and Black and White processes. Colors are certainly present and reds stand out, explosions are warm, but the near drab appearance of the hues is the latest signature element of a war film and Eastwood nicely presents both of his films in this style. The level of detail is superb and exhibited from the very beginnings of the film when wrecked tanks and other artifacts of the battle are shown in modern day footage taken directly from the island. This highly detailed film doesn´t possess vibrant and bright colors, but they are faithfully replicated.

Returning to the tech-speak, "Letters from Iwo Jima" presents strong black levels and shadow detail that is certainly important for a film that has long sequences in darkly lit caves and nighttime combat sequences. The black levels are nicely contrasted by the bright flares that quickly provide strong light for these sequences. There are moments of film grain found in both dark and light scenes, but these almost feel intended to help add to the gritty feel of the cinematography. That imperfection I spoke of is visible posterization during the grenade suicide scene. As intestines are being shredded by hand grenades, smoke is filling the air. That smoke shows the posterization in the green color bands created between the smoke and the dankly lit cave. It was only noticeable for a few brief seconds, but does keep this from being a truly perfect transfer. It is still worth a score of ten though.

Sound:
I´ve probably even written a review saying this very same thing, but I believe this is the first time that I´ve had the opportunity to witness a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack on a Blu-ray release. It is late and I don´t have the time to fully research this fact, but for the life of me, I cannot think of another title that had TrueHD on the Blu-ray release. I´ve run into this nice little technology a few times on HD-DVD, but this is definitely one of the first, if not the first times I´ve had the pleasure on the competing Blu-ray format. I´ve typically gotten all excited about Uncompressed PCM soundtracks such as "The House of Flying Daggers" or a couple of the DTS Master HD mixes. Regardless if I´m right or wrong with my original statement, "Letters from Iwo Jima" contains a very good sounding Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack.

This is the kind of film that is not completely reference material, but provides a few incredible scenes that certainly are. I´m not going to lead you astray and tell you that this rivals the beach landing in "Saving Private Ryan." It is perhaps a notch or two below that in total audio visceral excitement, but it is still awfully damn good. The soundtrack is provided in Japanese audio and a Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is also contained on the disc. English subtitles are provided and I´m more than overjoyed that Warner Bros. and Clint Eastwood did not provide a cowardly English dub for this incredible film. That would have been blasphemy.

The soundtrack itself is very good. The battle scenes show the true capability for "Letters from Iwo Jima" to be aggressive and enveloping. Machine guns rattle of from every direction, the ricochet of spent casings on hard rock highlights the full sounding TrueHD mix and also the track´s ability to provide crisp high end sounds. On the opposite side of the spectrum, "Letters from Iwo Jima" exhibits deep and powerful bass from the .1 LFE channel. This is a soundtrack that can become quite jarring during explosive sequences and at loud volumes. Even during the loudest volume, dialogue can be easily heard. I cannot attest to the intelligibility of the mix, as I don´t speak Japanese. The subtitles are difficult to read at times because of the beauty of motion unfolding on-screen. This is a very strong soundtrack that absolutely rivals all but the very best mixes during the combat sequences, and does a better than average job during the numerous quieter moments. The only thing from keeping this disc as a true reference quality mix is the fact there isn´t quite enough explosive battle scenes to compete with some of the other action films out there with equally strong soundtracks.

Extras:
"Flags of Our Fathers" was originally released as a no-frills single disc edition that was clearly released to capitalize on Oscar and Award Season buzz. Aside from strong visuals and sound, the release was disappointing. Within a couple of months, the film was re-released to coincide with this release of "Letters from Iwo Jima" that is an attractive one disc release on Blu-ray, but not quite as nice as the multiple disc release for "Flags of Our Fathers." A 5-Disc version of the two films exists on standard definition DVD, but I´ve yet to see a copy of the release to purchase and owning four versions of "Flags of Our Fathers" on DVD seems like enough. I wouldn´t mind seeing something that offers up a bit more historical fact on the Japanese side of the conflict, but this collection of shorts on the making of the film are good enough for now.

The first extra, Red Sun, Black Sand: The Making of Letters from Iwo Jima (21:02) cleverly hides the film´s original title in its title and takes a rather nice look at the making of the film. This feature includes Clint Eastwood, as well as the son of the film´s casting agent, the producer that isn´t famous (Robert Lorenz) and a few others as they discuss the genesis of "Letters from Iwo Jima" and the efforts that went into bringing Clint´s vision to life. The second part of the making of documentaries is The Faces of Combat: The Cast of Letters from Iwo Jima (18:40). This features all of the Japanese talent speaking in Japanese and discussing the historical figures of those real-life characters, or discussing the nature of the fictional characters. Many of the film´s stars are present in this commentary and I especially enjoyed the information provided by Ken Watanabe.

After the two making of documentaries, three other videos are provided. Images from the Frontlines: The Photography of Letters from Iwo Jima (3:27) is a short photo montage from the making of the film and set to music from Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens. This looked very nice in High Definition. The World Premiere (16:07) takes a look at the film´s World Premiere in Tokyo Japan and provides images of the posters and other elements from the premiere set again to music from the film. It features interviews with Clint Eastwood and shows the actors and crews words spoken to the crowd before the audience screened the film. These were mostly in Japanese and this supplement was not in high definition. The last substantial bonus is The Tokyo Press Conference (24:28) and this was the longest and most informative item on the disc. This features Clint Eastwood, Ken Watanabe, Iris Yamashita and a couple others as they discuss the making of the film and field questions. Closing out the supplements is the film´s Theatrical Trailer.

Closing Comments:
I´ve been far more interested with Clint Eastwood´s career beginning with his directorial work in "Unforgiven" than I have of his earlier work. He has created a few very good films beginning with that gritty Western and won two Academy Awards for his directing skills. However, "Letters from Iwo Jima" may be his most personal and most impressive endeavor. While researching for "Flags of Our Fathers," Eastwood decided to create a Japanese film depicting the other side of the Battle of Iwo Jima and influenced by the book "Picture Letters From Commander in Chief," "Letters from Iwo Jima" is an original film that uses many historical figures and creates fictional character to fill in the holes and present characters that are indicative of the people and events that transpired at Iwo Jima. This was easily the better of the two companion films. I find it captivating, inspiring, though provoking and another example of why I hope Clint Eastwood lives to make films forever. The Blu-ray release features a nearly perfect picture transfer with incredible depth of detail and a solid representation of the film´s stylistic hues. The sound is Dolby TrueHD and it is overpowering at times in its strength. The film´s bonus features are nice, but I had hoped for more historical information. This is still a better first outing that what was had with "Flags of Our Fathers." All-in-all, this is a definite addition to anybody´s Blu-ray collection. You are making a mistake of you do not already own this title.

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