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I just saw Letters From Iwo Jima, which I found absorbing and impressive, and its two and a half hours flew by. The audience I was with (which looked to include lots of veterans) were audibly disgruntled for the first hour or so, apparently not realizing that this entire movie was going to be presented from the Japanese soldiers' perspective.
A few old men boo'ed the first couple of times the characters said anything about Americans. (The first mention, a man digging a trench turns to his friend and says, "This is a terrible island, we should just give it to the Americans." And then someone shouts Boo! Them was hardly fightin' words.) One group walked out halfway through.
For those who remained, I think they warmed to it. It's hardly anti-American, or pro-Imperial Japan. As such, it deserves favorable comparison to Das Boot.
War films are a magnet for cliche and melodrama, and this one is no exception, (a flashback involving a dog had me shaking my head - bringing in a dog for emotional impact is cheap) but mostly, Clint Eastwood keeps things understated and straightforward. Ken Watanabe, as commanding General Kuribayashi, is fantastic. (The movie is based, in part, on letters he wrote to his son.) Kuribayashi practically wears a halo here, he's so honorable.
I haven't seen Flags of Our Fathers, but I overheard audience members, at the end, saying that Letters From Iwo Jima was their favorite out of the two.
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