DVD of the Week: Letters from Iwo Jima

There's a strong batch of new DVDs hitting stores today. Without a doubt, the best of the bunch is Clint Eastwood's World War II epic Letters from Iwo Jima. The acclaimed film comes in an individual set or alongside Eastwood's slightly less impressive but still very solid previous feature Flags Of Our Fathers in a 5 disc box set. Together the two films tell flip sides of the infamous Iwo Jima battle. Fathers focuses on the American side of things giving particular attention to the famous flag raising photo that would eventually become the model for the Iwo Jima memorial. Letters, starring Ken Watanabe in a magnificently concentrated performance, deals specifically with the Japanese side of the battle and the way in which one particular soldier (a remarkably talented unknown named Kazunari Ninomiya) reconciles the traditional Japanese code of honor with his personal desire to live to see his family once more.

Also on DVD today is Steven Soderbergh's wrongly overlooked The Good German, a stylized homage to 1940s noir that stars George Clooney as an American living overseas in a tumultuous post-World War II Europe. Cate Blanchett is brilliantly dramatic as the requisite femme fatale and Spider-Man's Tobey Maguire makes a welcome departure as a lecherous soldier trying to manipulate Blanchett into a pricey scheme. Last but not least is Venus, featuring vet thesp Peter O' Toole in his latest Academy Award nominated role. Here he gives a greatly comic and slyly tragic performance as a pervy older gent eyeing his friend's troubled young granddaughter as she makes an extended visit at his home. It's actually quite a lovely film, sort of a Lost In Translation with more bite and prickly leads.