War is Hell

In a week the Oscars will be over and the film, Letters From Iwo Jima, will not have won Best Picture. It was probably the motion picture that bumped Dream Girls (fun, but not deep) from a nomination, but it isn't a front-runner. It is still an excellent film, thought-provoking and profoundly sad. We walked away from it stunned and challenged.

Clint Eastwood made Flags of Our Fathers as the American perspective on Iwo Jima and created Letters as a companion piece from the Japanese point of view. Seven thousand Americans died in the fight for this tiny island and twenty thousand Japanese perished. Both Americans and Japanese are portrayed as vicious and compassionate; courageous and frightened; noble and cowardly. They are real human beings who love their families and their countries.

Letters From Iwo Jima graphically shows why Jesus' phrase in the Beatitudes "blessed are the peacemakers" should not be a platitude but the mantra and the passionate goal of every person, regardless of race or colour or ideology.