背包走天涯之纽约

Watching a Movie with War Veterans

Iwo Jima is a Japanese volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean. Back in War World II it witnessed one of the bloodiest battle on the Pacific front. The invasion of the island by American marines was part of the plan to advance onto the Japanese mainland and it was one of the few battles in which the Americans suffered more casualties than its opposition. Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who commanded the defence, knew that he had no chance of overcoming an invasion force nearly five times bigger. In an attempt to inflict as many casualties as he could, he ordered the defence to dig deep into the soft volcanic soil and allowed the Americans to swarm the landing beach before commencing fire. The war is best remembered by the Americans for the photograph "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" which depicts 5 marines and a navy corpsman putting up an American Flag on top of Mount Suribachi. The photo won a Pulitzer prize and was immortalized by the sculpture which is now located in Arlington Cemetery in Washington D.C.

I have been a fan of Clint Eastwood's movies ever since I watched his "Million Dollar Baby". This guy might be old, but with age comes talent and he sure has his way of making his audience feel for the characters in the movies. "Flags of Our Fathers" portrays the anguish of the navy corpsman John Bradley, who was dragged into the limelight to sell war bonds after raising the flag on Iwo Jima. His silence on the war to his family and everyone else after he retired from service speaks aloud of his belief that "the real heroes are the ones who died on Iwo Jima". "Letters from Iwo Jima", on the other hand, was shot from the Japanese perspective. It narrates how the Japanese soldiers were torn between serving the Emperor and returning to their families. War movies almost always tell one side of the story. Clint Eastwood covers both sides brilliantly with these 2 films that were shot back to back.

It is regrettable that "Letters from Iwo Jima" wasn't shown in many of the theaters in New York. The reasons being it was unable to draw crowds due to the lack of American content and that it was shot with a lower budget compared to its sibling. After much searching I managed to find one isolated theater and was pretty surprised by the demographics of the audience--they were all old people with white hair. Most were couples and it warmed my heart to see them holding hands and walking into the theater. With almost 10% of the population in the war at its peak, I have no doubts that most of these guys must have been war veterans or had some family members in it. Some might even have been on the soils of Iwo Jima.

There was one night I was catching "Shame Shame Shame"(that's right, it has this ridiculously simple title that works pretty well) on Fox TV news. It is a program that tries to highlight and publicise injustice in the society. Most of the time it features restaurant owners who have not paid their workers for months. That night, it showed war veterans fighting for the right to open a road which led to a sculpture they had built there. Their intent was to let people drive up to the memorial easily. The road had been blocked with barricades by a nearby condominium who wanted the road to be used as a playground for the residents. These war veterans laid their lives for the country, and yet they were not even allowed to have a road.

I look forward to seeing the Iwo Jima War Memorial in Washington D.C.

(Uploaded album "Museums and First Snow". I try to name the paintings and artists, but I have a failing memory.)

posted by wayne @ 4:59 PM