HighDefDiscNews
06-09-07, 08:15 PM
Letters from Iwo Jima (HD DVD) Review (http://www.highdefdiscnews.com/?p=78)
5 out of 5 stars - The Movie Itself (has an average rating of 8.2 on IMDb)
4 1/2 out of 5 stars - Video Quality (1080p in VC-1 on a 30gb disc)
4 1/2 out of 5 stars - Audio Quality (Dolby TrueHD 5.1 & Dolby Digital Plus 5.1)
3 1/2 out of 5 stars - Bonus Materials (are mostly in High Definition and good)
- R (Restricted)
- 2006
- 140 minutes
- Warner Brothers
The Movie Itself is one part of a pair of films done by legendary actor/director Clint Eastwood about the battle at Iwo Jima in World War II. “Letters from Iwo Jima” is one of two films that Clint did about the battle from both side’s perspectives. “Flags of Our Fathers” (this movie’s counter-part) tells the American perspective to a degree while this film tells the Japanese perspective. This film’s primary two characters (one of which was a real person) are General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (played by Ken Watanabe) and a young Japanese soldier named Saigo (played by the apparently really popular in Japan, Kazunari Ninomiya). The real theme to the film is in the title itself, it’s at times really about “Letters from Iwo Jima” written primarily by either the General or Saigo. That being said it also is about these brave Japanese soldiers that held up defending their homeland against invading American forces. When they knew they were clearly outnumbered and really didn’t stand much of a chance without reinforcements they realized they needed to build a tunnel system in the caves of the volcanic rock of Iwo Jima as an outpost for defense against the invading enemy.
It becomes very apparent within the first hour of this film that war is hell and I mean that even almost more so than in my Review for “Flags…“. This is because this shows the viewer what it was like to been in the perspective of the outnumbered and as well all know losing side. You at times really feel the sense of terror that these men were subject to. You also learn a lot about the way the Japanese military worked at this point during World War II. We learn a lot from this film and from this war but one thing you’ll learn by the end of this film is that they are no different than us. I think once you hear the one Japanese soldier read a captured American soldier’s letter from his mother you will really understand what I mean by this. I’d also like to mention just like “Flags…” this film was also produced by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg. This is probably one of Clint Eastwood’s best films to date and he has a lot of greats to choose from.
Video Quality on this release is presented in 1080p VC-1 encoded on a 30gb HD DVD combo format disc. This release is just as good in terms of video quality as it’s counter-part “Flags…“. Again, some people may mistake the contrast being off for what is just the visual style that Clint Eastwood was going for in both of these films. This film matches the other very much so in terms of cinematography because it was done by the exact same people that did it. This video transfer shows off some amazing blacks, partially because the island of Iwo Jima is such a dark place with it’s black sand and such as it is. The scenes inside caves are a really great example to use here for emphasizing that darkness that I’m referring to. Again like this film’s counter-part you’re not going to find any artifacts or pixilation of any sort in this solid video transfer from Warner Brothers.
Audio Quality on this release (unlike it’s counter-part “Flags…“) is in both Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1. Both tracks are in Japanese I’d like to first point out. It’s amazing what a difference Dolby TrueHD over standard Dolby Digital Plus makes. This film has some amazing sound to begin with but it’s mixed so well. You’ll feel the explosions, gunfire, shaking of the caves from enemy attack and everything else that comes along with war. But in this film unlike it’s counter-part the sound is going to be used to really scare you more from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers. You’re going to find yourself jumping when they do at times it’s really that lifelike of a sound mix.
Bonus Materials are included on the HD DVD side of this combo format release first off which is really great. The bonus materials are mostly in High Definition. These in fact (the High Def parts anyway) appear to have been shot with “Flags…” bonus features. Which really I must admit does a great job of keeping these films counter-parts and/or companion pieces to one another. First off is “Red Sun, Black Sand: The Making of Letters to Iwo Jima” (20 minutes and in High Def) which is as you guess your basic making of feature. This includes interviews with everyone from director Clint Eastwood to co-writer Paul Haggis to screenwriter Iris Yamashita to directory of photography Tom Stern and even editor Joel Cox. Joel speaks quiet a bit about syncing up the subtitles to the lips of the actors and as he is telling you this, you really kind of start to notice how amazing of a job he and the other people working with him did here. This is something I consider bonus material even though it’s about subtitles, when it’s a Japanese language film like this subtitles are very important to the film but how they come to be as good as they are is explained here in this feature.
“The Faces of Combat: The Cast of Letters to Iwo Jima” (18 minutes and in High Def) is a feature about the casting process and actors in the film. It offers interviews with the casting crew and interviews with Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya (who plays “Saigo” in the film). “Images from the Frontlines: The Photography of Letters to Iwo Jima” (3 minutes and in High Def) is basically a slide show of still frame images from the film set to music. It’s actually pretty cool believe it or not. Now we get to the disappointing parts of the bonus materials…
“The World Premiere” (16 minutes in standard definition) is just as the name says it is. This one probably isn’t something you’ll end up watching to be honest with you. “The Tokyo Press Conference” (24 minutes in standard definition) is again just as the name says it is and probably a little bit more worth watching than the world premiere. Lastly the Theatrical Trailer is not only include in crappy standard definition encoded in ancient MPEG-2 but it’s also not even cropped to display in widescreen (”16:9″) properly. This is really disappointing as “Flags…” offered it’s trailer in amazing quality.
— Review written by Justin Sluss
5 out of 5 stars - The Movie Itself (has an average rating of 8.2 on IMDb)
4 1/2 out of 5 stars - Video Quality (1080p in VC-1 on a 30gb disc)
4 1/2 out of 5 stars - Audio Quality (Dolby TrueHD 5.1 & Dolby Digital Plus 5.1)
3 1/2 out of 5 stars - Bonus Materials (are mostly in High Definition and good)
- R (Restricted)
- 2006
- 140 minutes
- Warner Brothers
The Movie Itself is one part of a pair of films done by legendary actor/director Clint Eastwood about the battle at Iwo Jima in World War II. “Letters from Iwo Jima” is one of two films that Clint did about the battle from both side’s perspectives. “Flags of Our Fathers” (this movie’s counter-part) tells the American perspective to a degree while this film tells the Japanese perspective. This film’s primary two characters (one of which was a real person) are General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (played by Ken Watanabe) and a young Japanese soldier named Saigo (played by the apparently really popular in Japan, Kazunari Ninomiya). The real theme to the film is in the title itself, it’s at times really about “Letters from Iwo Jima” written primarily by either the General or Saigo. That being said it also is about these brave Japanese soldiers that held up defending their homeland against invading American forces. When they knew they were clearly outnumbered and really didn’t stand much of a chance without reinforcements they realized they needed to build a tunnel system in the caves of the volcanic rock of Iwo Jima as an outpost for defense against the invading enemy.
It becomes very apparent within the first hour of this film that war is hell and I mean that even almost more so than in my Review for “Flags…“. This is because this shows the viewer what it was like to been in the perspective of the outnumbered and as well all know losing side. You at times really feel the sense of terror that these men were subject to. You also learn a lot about the way the Japanese military worked at this point during World War II. We learn a lot from this film and from this war but one thing you’ll learn by the end of this film is that they are no different than us. I think once you hear the one Japanese soldier read a captured American soldier’s letter from his mother you will really understand what I mean by this. I’d also like to mention just like “Flags…” this film was also produced by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg. This is probably one of Clint Eastwood’s best films to date and he has a lot of greats to choose from.
Video Quality on this release is presented in 1080p VC-1 encoded on a 30gb HD DVD combo format disc. This release is just as good in terms of video quality as it’s counter-part “Flags…“. Again, some people may mistake the contrast being off for what is just the visual style that Clint Eastwood was going for in both of these films. This film matches the other very much so in terms of cinematography because it was done by the exact same people that did it. This video transfer shows off some amazing blacks, partially because the island of Iwo Jima is such a dark place with it’s black sand and such as it is. The scenes inside caves are a really great example to use here for emphasizing that darkness that I’m referring to. Again like this film’s counter-part you’re not going to find any artifacts or pixilation of any sort in this solid video transfer from Warner Brothers.
Audio Quality on this release (unlike it’s counter-part “Flags…“) is in both Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1. Both tracks are in Japanese I’d like to first point out. It’s amazing what a difference Dolby TrueHD over standard Dolby Digital Plus makes. This film has some amazing sound to begin with but it’s mixed so well. You’ll feel the explosions, gunfire, shaking of the caves from enemy attack and everything else that comes along with war. But in this film unlike it’s counter-part the sound is going to be used to really scare you more from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers. You’re going to find yourself jumping when they do at times it’s really that lifelike of a sound mix.
Bonus Materials are included on the HD DVD side of this combo format release first off which is really great. The bonus materials are mostly in High Definition. These in fact (the High Def parts anyway) appear to have been shot with “Flags…” bonus features. Which really I must admit does a great job of keeping these films counter-parts and/or companion pieces to one another. First off is “Red Sun, Black Sand: The Making of Letters to Iwo Jima” (20 minutes and in High Def) which is as you guess your basic making of feature. This includes interviews with everyone from director Clint Eastwood to co-writer Paul Haggis to screenwriter Iris Yamashita to directory of photography Tom Stern and even editor Joel Cox. Joel speaks quiet a bit about syncing up the subtitles to the lips of the actors and as he is telling you this, you really kind of start to notice how amazing of a job he and the other people working with him did here. This is something I consider bonus material even though it’s about subtitles, when it’s a Japanese language film like this subtitles are very important to the film but how they come to be as good as they are is explained here in this feature.
“The Faces of Combat: The Cast of Letters to Iwo Jima” (18 minutes and in High Def) is a feature about the casting process and actors in the film. It offers interviews with the casting crew and interviews with Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya (who plays “Saigo” in the film). “Images from the Frontlines: The Photography of Letters to Iwo Jima” (3 minutes and in High Def) is basically a slide show of still frame images from the film set to music. It’s actually pretty cool believe it or not. Now we get to the disappointing parts of the bonus materials…
“The World Premiere” (16 minutes in standard definition) is just as the name says it is. This one probably isn’t something you’ll end up watching to be honest with you. “The Tokyo Press Conference” (24 minutes in standard definition) is again just as the name says it is and probably a little bit more worth watching than the world premiere. Lastly the Theatrical Trailer is not only include in crappy standard definition encoded in ancient MPEG-2 but it’s also not even cropped to display in widescreen (”16:9″) properly. This is really disappointing as “Flags…” offered it’s trailer in amazing quality.
— Review written by Justin Sluss