The East is a big deal. Korea, Vietnam, now Iraq… The Americans have a dramatic experience of eastern military campaigns. Hence the dilogy about their origins — about the war between the US and Imperial Japan, which became the biggest trauma for America (Pearl Harbor) and the biggest tragedy for the world (Hiroshima).
1. The East is a big deal. Korea, Vietnam, now Iraq… The Americans have a dramatic experience of eastern military campaigns. Hence the dilogy about their origins — about the war between the US and Imperial Japan, which became the biggest trauma for America (Pearl Harbor) and the biggest tragedy for the world (Hiroshima). Clint Eastwood, the most ideologically bold director of today’s cinema, finally decided to understand this tragic mixture of American soldier heroism and the failures of the West on the eastern front.
2. Two truths. Eastwood figured it out radically — talking about this war bilaterally, double-edged. “Flags…” is about six US Army infantrymen who planted a flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. «Letters …» — about the Japanese, just as heroically defending the island, and on behalf of one of them. Eastwood made the Pacific campaign a personal experience of his heroes, their personal lesson. After all, only in this way can the lessons of history be learned.
3. Eastwood, the last hero. The one who entered the history of cinema as Dirty Harry, a policeman who establishes his own law over criminals, made the Mysterious River in his declining years — about how relative any law is. The one who spent half his life playing a romantic cowboy made Unforgiven, in which he exposed the western genre. The one who was a true macho showed in «Million Baby» how a girl becomes a true fighter. Eastwood the director consistently debunks the myths created not without the participation of Eastwood the actor. The film legend is not afraid of the absence of a romantic veil in her author’s projects, or even the story of a national victory from the point of view of the enemy. Brave old man, lone hero.
“Flags of our fathers”
Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach and others.At the box office from 1 March.
«Letters from Iwo Jima»
Starring: Ken Watanabe and other Exclusively Japanese Actors. At the box office from 15 March.