20 Great Movies Since 2000 That You Forgot Existed

11. Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)

Clint Eastwood is back in the limelight right now for his Iraq war-based flick, American Sniper, which stars Bradley Cooper as famous US marksman Chris Kyle, who racked up 160 confirmed kills across four tours. Whereas that movie has been met with a lot of controversy for its perceived willingness to just ignore the politics of the Iraq war - it is very much a straight drama with no opinion - Letters From Iwo Jim is the opposite. In fact, Eastwood was clearly so inspired to tell this particular aspect of WW2 with an even hand that he shot Letters From Iwo Jima back to back with Flags Of Our Fathers; together these films set out to render the Battle of Iowa Jima from both sides, Japanese and American. Somewhat unexpectedly, it was Flags Of Our Fathers that turned out to be a bit of a dud and not the other way round. Eastwood's Japanese-based film, on the other hand, proved strong, focused and notably more impressive - an excellent war movie all round, and one that deserves to be seen in the same capacity as more famous WW2 movies like Saving Private Ryan. And you might as well watch Flags Of Our Fathers, too - just to see how the experiment paid off.