A “masterpiece” World War 2 film you may not have heard of is hailed as “better than Saving Private Ryan“. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) is a Japanese-language American film that depicts the Battle of Iwo Jima, fought between the United States and Imperial Japan in 1945.

The film was directed by Clint Eastwood and tells the story from the Japanese perspective. It’s a companion piece to his previous film, Flags of Our Fathers, which shows events from an American point of view. The film stars Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryō Kase, and Shidō Nakamura, and offers a bleak and unflinching portrayal of the real-life battle. Collider included the film among 10 war movies superior to Steven Spielberg‘s 1998 masterwork, Saving Private Ryan, which is often held up as the gold standard of war film realism.

Praising the Letters from Iwo Jima’s unusual focus on the experiences of America’s adversary at the time, Collider says it “exposes the tragic symmetry of war” by “emphasising shared humanity across ideological lines”.

“It also delves into the culture and psychology of the Japanese soldiers,” the outlet added. “These men fight not because they believe in victory, but because surrender is unthinkable.”

Fans have flocked to IMDb to shower the war epic with praise. One wrote: “With ‘Letters From Iwo Jima’, Clint Eastwood breaks the shackles and delivers an out-and-out masterpiece.

“He doesn’t arrest his style into the boredom of flashback wartime drama or any chauvinistic propaganda. In fact, he takes radical U-turns.

“In ‘Flags Of Our Fathers’, he shows that there is nothing more honourable than to die for a native land, and in ‘Letters From Iwo Jima ‘, he shows the parallels in the misery of death.”

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A third wrote: “In the end, this isn’t just a war film. It’s a meditation on empathy, perspective, and the cost of loyalty – and only someone like Clint Eastwood could bring it to life.”

A fourth said Letters from Iwo Jima is Eastwood’s “masterpiece”.

Reddit users posting on the popular r/movies subreddit were also keen to give the film its flowers. One wrote: “Letters from Iwo Jima is definitely one of the best war films I’ve seen; for me, the narrative is reminiscent of Thin Red Line, which is also amazing.”

Another wrote: “It’s so strange how he made Iwo Jima and Flags Of Our Fathers at the same time, but Iwo Jima is just so much better in every way. Very underrated war film and one of my favourites.”

The drama has a 15 certificate and contains strong violence – so viewer discretion is advised.

Letters from Iwo Jima is available to buy or rent on various platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Apple TV, and Sky Store.