"FLAGS" OR "LETTERS"--WHICH EASTWOOD FILM WILL TAKE HOME AN OSCAR?

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Shido Nakamura, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase, Yuki Matsuzaki, Hiroshi Watanabe, Takumi Bando, Nobumasa Sakagami, Takashi Yamaguchi, Nae Yuuki (Directed by Clint Eastwood; Written by Iris Yamashita; Paramount/DreamWorks)

In “Flags of Our Fathers,” Clint Eastwood gave us his take on the battle of Iwo Jima, as well as the crippling psychological damage suffered by some of the heroic American participants in the bloody battle. Now, in the Japanese-language “Letters From Iwo Jima,” Eastwood returns to combat, this time telling the story from the Japanese point of view. As Variety puts it, “ A big awards question is whether the two films will compete for attention; whether there is room for both in major Oscar categories; or whether kudos voters will view Eastwood's twin pics as two sides of the same coin and honor both by voting for one. (Some theorized that the Oscar wins for the third ‘Lord of the Rings’ was in effect recognition of the entire trilogy.)”

FOR GUY FLATLEY'S 1976 INTERVIEW WITH CLINT EASTWOOD, click here.