Later on this month the film "Letters from Iwo Jima" will premiere in the U.S. and in my opinion this has the potential to be a very important film on many levels. It is perhaps the first major Hollywood studio release to be in a foreign language and subtitled in 25 years (since The Boat, in 1981, probably) and is part of the rediscovery of World War II that "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Thin Red Line" started 10 years ago. Too few films have approached the war in the Pacific and, obviously, even fewer have approached the war from the point of view of the Japanese. In preparation of this, I'll offer up my own Top 5 War Movies (though, if "Letters" is as good as I think it is going to be, this list may change).

1) Tora, Tora, Tora (1970) - While this film has faults in that it takes a pseudo-revisionist point of view that places a great deal of insinuated blame on the American commanders at Pearl Harbor. Regardless, it contains no fictional story line and does a reasonable job of telling the story of the lead-up to Pearl Harbor in a dramatic way. The cinematography is good, the Japanese is authentic, and the action sequences were good enough that films like Midway (1976) just used the same footage.

2) The Boat (Das Boot, 1981) - Not only did this movie cement Jurgen Prochnow's status as the founding member of the All Purpose Eastern Europeans, it portrayed war from a different perspective than, perhaps, we had ever seen. Wolfgang Petersen directed the film in a way that makes the viewer feel the claustrophobia that must have come from serving in a German U-Boat. Through hours and hours (the movie is long at 149 minutes, longer at 216 minutes if you see the German version, and really LONG at 293 minutes if you see the director's cut) of not much happening to these soldiers, followed by intense moments of violence. Incredible.

3) Saving Private Ryan (1998) - Even putting aside from the rightfully famous opening 25 minutes, this film has an amazing amount going for it. Even if the idea that the U.S. Army would send a single squad of Rangers off on a mission to retrieve one soldier is ridiculous, the more important thing is the questions that this story line forces the characters to deal with. What is the value of one individual during a war? What are the conflicts that a group of soldiers have to deal with within their group? How do they handle groupthink type of situations? How does the chain of command suffer and survive over time? In any event, I think this film is the best of the "rediscovered" war film style.

4) Glory (1989) - A great film and an important one for any American to see in order to understand exactly what the point of the Civil War was. The film is a lot more about the development of the Massachusetts 54th and the battles that they fought with each other than it is about the battles that they fought against the Confederate Arny.

5) All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) - Perhaps the ultimate anti-war statement and far ahead of its time.

Honorable Mention: In Harm's Way (1965), Gallipoli (1981), The Enemy Below (1957), Guadalcanal Diary (1943), A Soldier's Story (1984), etc.