Sunday, November 28, 2021 The weather will be cloudy and mild
From last night to tonight, I used the weekend to watch the two sister films "The Banner of the Fathers" and "The Letter from Iwo Jima" directed by Clint Eastwood in a row. After watching it, I couldn't calm down for a long time. . Especially when the ending song "Main Titles" of "Iwo Jima" sounded, the melodious and melancholy melody always lingered in my mind.
Speaking of which, "Iwo Jima's Letter from Home" is not the first time I have read it. I remember it was when I was in college, I don't remember whether it was a sophomore or a junior. On a rainy afternoon, I watched this movie for the first time in the dormitory. At that time, it was still an assembled desktop computer with a 19-inch screen. After reading it, I was also disappointed. At that time, I didn’t fully understand this movie, but it was just by chance that I saw a recommendation on the self-improvement website of Wuhan University, so I downloaded it and watched it as a war movie of World War II. I vaguely remember that at that time, I was deeply impressed by the protagonist of the film, Li Lin Zhongdao, a tall Japanese high-ranking officer who was ordered to come to this deserted island and lead a group of defeated soldiers to fight against beasts. It's just the letters that can't be sent, the last hope in the hearts of soldiers and officers whose lives are like mustards. At that time, I felt that the film was really beautiful, a kind of beauty like blood in the setting sun. I knew that the final outcome was failure, but it was such a beautiful depiction of failure, which was really a master-level operation of the film. From ancient times to the present, people often have sympathy for the losers, especially the aliens among the losers, such as the overlord of Chu in Farewell My Concubine, the unfinished Zhuge Liang, the traitor Yue Fei who framed the traitor to death, and the hanging on the coal mountain in Beijing. of Chongzhen. Tadashi Kuribayashi in "Iwo Jima's Letter to the Family" also seems to possess such an alternative tragic beauty. He has subverted my stereotype of Japanese upper and middle-level officers. A letter to the family, as well as the paintings he made in the tunnel, make people think that he is a man with flesh and blood, rather than a fanatical militarism. , the kind that kills people on Baga Yalu every minute. As a literate Japanese soldier who studied in the United States, he was ordered in danger and fulfilled his duties. At the end of his life, he was killed and broken, which is infinitely regrettable. However, as the executor of Japanese militarism decision-making, he did not reflect on all of this absolutely, and eventually fell into a situation of ignorance and loyalty. How unfortunate and sad the island is.
"The Flag of Our Fathers" is also a very famous movie. I remember the photo of the US military holding the Stars and Stripes. It seems to have planted traces in my mind very early and became the symbol of the United States in the history of victory in World War II. But I haven't seen this movie. It's weird. I always feel like I should, but in fact, it seems that this is the first time I've seen it, and I didn't notice the place where this photo was taken. in Iwo Jima. After watching "Iwo Jima's Letter from Home" for many years, I learned that these two films are a pair of sister films. I heard that they were filmed in the same location, filmed by the same crew, and filmed at the same time. It can be called a pair of strange flowers in the history of world film. The same historical event describes two different stories from different positions on both sides of the war, but they have the same effect, which is really admirable.
"The Banner of Our Fathers" is a typical American anti-war genre film, and the story tension is not so unforgettable compared to "Iwo Jima Letter". The reason may be that most of the plot of the movie is moved to the rear of the continental United States - outside the battlefield, and the focus is not on how brutal the battle of Iwo Jima was, how fierce the battlefield was, but on a few soldiers on the battlefield. Because of the flagpole raised by accident, he was regarded as a hero, and then returned to the country to be used as a chess piece, promoting war bonds everywhere, and very bleak things in his later years. The film constantly depicts the battle of Iwo Jima in the eyes of the three soldiers through the means of flashbacks. During this process, we can also see that they all suffered from post-war stress and post-traumatic stress to varying degrees, especially the military doctor John. After returning home, I kept fantasizing about being called from behind. Although the director borrowed such a scene technique to flash back to the real battlefield, this kind of auditory hallucination is not a real existence. In the cruel battlefield, the most tragic voice is the voice of the wounded soldiers shouting to the military doctor one after another. It is conceivable that the military doctor is under great pressure all the time, not only that he will be shot by the Japanese soldiers at any time. The risk of killing, this is taken care of in "Iwo Jima's Family Letter", and it is also faced with the helplessness of being unable to save comrades in arms every moment, as well as countless tragic scenes of blood flying and broken limbs on the battlefield. It naturally became a nightmare they could not forget in the future.
In fact, both "The Banner of the Fathers" and "Iwo Jima's Family Letter" are typical representatives of anti-war genre films from an American perspective. No matter how different the shooting perspectives of the two films are, their central ideas and emotional tone are Very similar, this should be my deepest feeling after watching both films. I believe that such a movie cannot be made by the Japanese, nor can it be made by the Chinese. This is a World War II movie from an American perspective. Even if a work like "Iwo Jima's Letter to the Family" is shot from the perspective of the Japanese, this is the Iwo Jima letter to the Americans, not the Iwo Jima letter to the Japanese. I believe that even today, the Japanese have not enough reflection on the war. Perhaps in their opinion, the letter from Iwo Jima is honorable, the death of Tadaichi Ribayashi is great, and the deaths of soldiers like Saigo and Shimizu are also loyal. . But what we saw in "Iwo Jima's Letter from Home" was clearly a tragedy, a tragedy in which a small person was caught in the tide of the times. They are all pawns of war. After they are used up by the war makers, they are finally abandoned and forgotten. This is true of John Bradley, Ella Hayes, and Rene Ganon in "The Banner of Our Fathers."
Times are so grand, and individuals are so small. 10 years later, after I got married and had a child and became a father, I read "Iwo Jima's Letter from Home" again, and felt more empathy and helplessness in my heart. Days and nights when he went to the battlefield, it seemed that Lilin Zhongdao kept talking about his wife and children, while Xixiang was recruited to serve as a soldier during his wife's pregnancy. The children we met, all of which brought a deeper pain to a father's skin. This kind of pain was not something that college student could experience and feel. So young people are clamoring for war, but those who have grown up are often afraid of war. The war is to protect the family and the country, and in the war, the father's children and the husband's wife are lost in the end, how can you keep your family intact?
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