As luck would have it, I watched these films within 24 hours of each other, making for an interesting comparison and look at the modern war movie.First, you should know LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA is surprisingly good. I think we've hit the tail-end of Clint Eastwood's late-career resurgence, after an amazing run his tastes are starting to look a little more dated than classical, his quick work more sloppy than efficient, but this film manages to avoid the vast majority of his sentimental trappings. He doesn't paint his supporting characters in big, wet broadstrokes, he doesn't drench the film in sappy score (and thankfully, he doesn't sing). Even if the third act teeters on Hollywood contrivance, it never fully succumbs, and what's left is an exceptionally rich and moving look at moral uncertainty, allegiance to country, and the costs of war. Just a beautiful and beautifully realized film.
Then there's AVATAR, a badass assault on the senses masquerading at military critique... and I loved it. Critics call films "Non-stop action thrill-rides" all the time, but this ACTUALLY IS a non-stop action thrill-ride. Watching it in 3-D actually felt like riding a roller-coaster. Sure, the story is DANCES WITH WOLVES starring the Thundercats, and the dialogue is leaded with tin-eared clunkers, but really, who cares? My ass never got sore and I never checked my watch despite a its indulgent length. This wasn't KING KONG. At the end of the day, not every film needs to make you think. Cinema was born as communal spectacle and AVATAR is spectacle on steroids.
Thematically, these two war movies are fairly unique in that both present the culture of the intended audience as the enemy. In the former, we're entrenched with Japanese fending off the attacking Americans. In the latter, we join the ranks of tree-hugging nature tribes warding off insidious human encroachment. Ultimately, the richness of FLAG's ethical ambiguity only serves to highlight absurdity of AVATAR's claim to legitimate social commentary. James Cameron's opus is about as deep as an episode of Captain Planet and adds nothing to our cultural dialogue regarding environmental obligations. In fact, it's high-contrast world-view may actually dumb the conversation down to a halt. But again, who cares, I say. It's a small price to pay for an action thrill-ride that actually thrills, spectacle that's actually spectacular.
