Both sides are made real both fight with honor both write letters home and dream of war's end. These, we realize, are the "enemy" referred to in "Flags" likewise, in "Letters," the enemy of whom they speak are the all-too-real American soldiers in "Flags." Eastwood has achieved something remarkable with this pair of films: Together, they make a war story without an enemy.
Kuribayashi leads the troops with an imposing dignity, but in his letters home apologizes profusely for not "attending to the kitchen floor before I left." We see Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker, receiving his draft notice while his very young wife sobs touchingly, he promises his unborn baby that he will come home. The soldiers emerge not as lockstep minions but nuanced individuals. In washed-out tones of brown and khaki, mimicking the colors of the troops' uniforms (blood, used sparingly, is startlingly crimson, seeming to sear a hole in the screen), the film plays out in a mood of resignation and control. "No one is allowed to die until he has killed 10 enemy soldiers. "I trust that you will fight with honor," says the general in a pre-battle speech. These soldiers approach their fate with talk not of how they will prevail, but of duty and honor. Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe), they endure a long combat, retreating into an elaborate network of caves and pondering their brief future. Initially through letters, we meet several Japanese soldiers, sent to the island with the knowledge that they may well not return. "Letters," written by Iris Yamashita, is the mirror image of the story of the battle of Iwo Jima depicted in "Flags," from the perspective of the other side. The flag still flies, the waves forever ebb and flow. These are unexpected images on which to close crowded, violent war stories, but both fit perfectly: Eastwood has found the quiet soul of each film.
Both "Flags of our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima," Clint Eastwood's elegant pair of World War II dramas, end on a wordless, haunting note: "Flags" concludes with the sound of a breeze gently blowing a flag "Letters" on the echo of waves softly crashing on a shore.