--- title: "Letters from Iwo Jima: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/letters-from-iwo-jima/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/letters-from-iwo-jima" critics_score: 80 critics_reviews: 8 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Letters from Iwo Jima (2006): what the critics said Critics' score 80 from 8 reviews: 7 positive, 1 mixed, 0 negative. Most critics respond warmly to Letters from Iwo Jima, with praise centred on Eastwood’s sympathetic portrayal of Japanese soldiers and his restrained treatment of combat. The reviews repeatedly value the intimate character portraits, which make shared humanity tangible without softening the horror of war. Several find the narrative more focused and affecting than Flags of Our Fathers. Performances are another point of agreement, with The Times singling out Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya for making the soldiers recognisable as people rather than representatives of an enemy army. The reservations concern sentimentality, explicit moral lessons and flashbacks that explain too much. The AV Club finds manipulative touches within an otherwise nuanced account of difficult choices. The Guardian offers the clearest dissent, respecting the film’s generosity but finding too little passion or flair to make it fully involving. The spread is largely positive: most critics admire the restraint that this dissenting review finds limiting. ## The New York Times — Manohla Dargis Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 20 December 2006. The film is a radical yet traditional war movie that humanizes the Japanese soldiers and presents their inevitable defeat with originality and insight, standing as one of the year's best. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/20/movies/20lett.html) ## Empire — Dan Jolin Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 23 January 2007. The critic calls it considerably superior to Flags of Our Fathers due to its tighter, more focused narrative from the Japanese perspective and inherently dramatic story of outnumbered defenders. It balances unflinching war horrors with touching portrayals of characters like General Kuribayashi and conscript Saigo, emphasizing shared humanity on both sides. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/letters-iwo-jima-review/) ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 20 December 2006. Eastwood achieves a remarkable empathetic cross-cultural feat by telling the story in Japanese from the adversaries' viewpoint, highlighting shared humanity, honor, and the futility of war with characteristic restraint. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-dec-20-et-letters20-story.html) ## RogerEbert.com — Jim Emerson Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 11 January 2007. Eastwood's companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers offers a Japanese perspective on the battle, emphasizing the humanity and doomed resolve of the soldiers through intimate character portraits and stark battlefield realism. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/letters-from-iwo-jima-2007) ## The AV Club — Noel Murray Rating B+. 20 December 2006. The critic argues the film is better than its companion Flags of Our Fathers because it focuses on the war itself rather than its ironies, praising Eastwood’s sympathetic portrayal of Japanese soldiers and nuanced handling of difficult choices, while noting some manipulative sentimentality and on-the-nose moments. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/letters-from-iwo-jima-1798202281) ## The Times — Cosmo Landesman Rating 4/5. 25 February 2007. Eastwood's film succeeds in putting viewers at the centre of events from the Japanese perspective and humanises the enemy soldiers in a way few Hollywood war films have managed before. Superb performances, particularly from Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya, make the characters relatable and the point that they were not so different from us compelling. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/letters-from-iwo-jima-the-sunday-times-review-vh3dzj8qkjh) ## Variety — Todd McCarthy Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 7 December 2006. A rare sympathetic war film from one side's perspective of a former enemy, it is piercing and astutely judged with strong performances and an intimate focus on the characters' humanity amid inevitable defeat. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2006/film/reviews/letters-from-iwo-jima-1200511625/) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 55/100 (inferred from the text). 23 February 2007. The film is a high-minded and generous attempt to portray the Japanese side of the Iwo Jima battle with restraint and respect for the enemy soldiers, especially General Kuribayashi. It lacks real passion and flair, remaining subdued and respectful rather than fully immersive or questioning. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/feb/23/actionandadventure.clinteastwood) ## Screen Daily 11 December 2006. Eastwood’s twilight career renaissance continues and deepens with this more ruminative and plaintive companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers, focusing on the human toll from the Japanese perspective. It is described as the more striking and memorable work of the pair, likely to earn Oscar nods despite limited commercial prospects. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/letters-from-iwo-jima/4029899.article) ## Slant Magazine — Nick Schager 11 December 2006. The critic finds Eastwood’s companion piece superior to Flags of Our Fathers for its departures, praising the director’s visual storytelling, charcoal aesthetic, and exploration of loyalty and honor through strong lead performances, while faulting the script’s didacticism, on-the-nose flashbacks, and lack of subtlety in character development. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/letters-from-iwo-jima/) ## Time Out — Wally Hammond 20 February 2007. The second part of Eastwood’s Pacific War diptych is an even more sombre and intimate affair than its companion piece, performed almost entirely in Japanese and told from the perspective of Japanese troops facing inevitable death. It is praised as an impressive work of compassionate imagination with surreal ironies and restrained storytelling that avoids both grandeur and claims of masterpiece status. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/letters-from-iwo-jima) ## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray 22 February 2007. The critic sees the film as the stronger of Eastwood's two Iwo Jima pictures and praises its portrayal of the Japanese soldiers as fully human with decency and courage, while noting its indictment of war as an obscenity. He observes that the film's construction feels American despite being in Japanese and criticizes the use of flashbacks to sentimentalize the story. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/letters-from-iwo-jima-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/letters-from-iwo-jima.md