The real-life attritional battle between the United States and Imperial Japan in 1945 is recognised by historians as one of the most deadly face-offs in the Pacific theatre, with tens of thousands of troops killed or wounded on both sides. The film tells the story from the Japanese perspective. It’s a companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers, which was shot immediately before it and released the same year, showing events from an American point of view.

It stars Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryō Kase, and Shidō Nakamura, and offers a bleak and uncompromising portrayal of the US’s invasion of the Japanese island of Iwojima, from which the film takes its name, and the determined fightback that followed.

Collider included the film among 10 war movies superior to Steven Spielberg‘s 1998 D-Day epic, Saving Private Ryan, which is often held up as the gold standard of war-film realism.

Praising the Letters from Iwo Jima’s unusual focus on the experiences of America’s former adversary at the time, the outlet says it “exposes the tragic symmetry of war” by “emphasising shared humanity across ideological lines”.

“It also delves into the culture and psychology of the Japanese soldiers,” it added. “These men fight not because they believe in victory, but because surrender is unthinkable.”

Fans have flocked to IMDb to praise the film, with one writing: “With ‘Letters From Iwo Jima’, Clint Eastwood breaks the shackles and delivers an out-and-out masterpiece.

“He doesn’t arrest his style into the boredom of flashback wartime drama or any chauvinistic propaganda. In fact, he takes radical U-turns.

“In ‘Flags Of Our Fathers’, he shows that there is nothing more honourable than to die for a native land, and in ‘Letters From Iwo Jima ‘, he shows the parallels in the misery of death.”

A second added: “Did it really last two and a half hours? It felt felt a lot shorter than that. No, this is not an action war film with nonstop blood baths. It is a film that pulls the humanity out of the monster that is war.

A third said: “In the end, this isn’t just a war film. It’s a meditation on empathy, perspective, and the cost of loyalty – and only someone like Clint Eastwood could bring it to life.”

A fourth said Letters from Iwo Jima is Eastwood’s “masterpiece”.

Reddit users posting on the popular r/movies subreddit were also keen to give recognition to the film, with one saying it’s “definitely one of the best war films I’ve seen; for me, the narrative is reminiscent of Thin Red Line, which is also amazing”.

The drama has a 15 certificate and contains strong violence – so viewer discretion is advised.

Letters from Iwo Jima is available to buy or rent on various platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and Sky Store.