‘Masterpiece’ war film hailed as ‘better than Saving Private Ryan’ – now on Prime

A ‘masterpiece’ war film that has been praised as being ‘better than Saving Private Ryan‘ is now streaming on Amazon Prime. The film in question was released just eight years after the highly praised Steven Spielberg feature. Saving Private Ryan has set a benchmark for war films as audiences find themselves seeking out films in the same genre that are better than the Academy Award-winning masterpiece. Spielberg, who directed Saving Private Ryan, would go on to produce the war film dubbed better than his own take on the D-Day landings. The Tom Hanks-featuring film won Best Director and Best Cinematography at the 1999 Oscars.

A film dubbed better than Saving Private Ryan would also see plaudits at the Oscars in 2007. The feature would win one of its four Oscar nominations, with veteran director Clint Eastwood making the film a companion piece to his previous release, Flags of Our Fathers. Eastwood, who has depicted modern and historic warfare through American Sniper and Flags of Our Fathers, would receive a Best Picture nomination for his work on Letters from Iwo Jima.

The feature has since been hailed as on par with Saving Private Ryan, while some consider it to be much superior to the Spielberg classic. A fan of Letters from Iwo Jima took to iMDB and wrote: “After much anticipation, I was finally able to see Letters from Iwo Jima. I had left Flags of Our Fathers with a smile on my face, saying, ‘Now that was a great war film, and it would be hard to match.’

Letters from Iwo Jima not only matches Flags of Our Fathers but also surpasses it, and went on to tie Saving Private Ryan as the greatest war film I have ever seen. I sat numbed after viewing this film and look forward to watching it again.”

Another person added: “Every part of this movie was great and in my opinion is better than some recent World War II films such as Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line or anything else that I have seen from the past ten to fifteen years.”

They went on to suggest Letters from Iwo Jima ranks among the best war films of all time, joining the likes of The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now. They wrote: “You could see that this movie was done so well and with so much feeling. It was not made to impress people but too make a real statement. That is what makes the movie so great. You can see that well-funded movies can still be powerful.

“This movie is a sign of hope from the movie industry that has seemed to become more and more commercial. I know I’am repeating myself but that is because this movie reminds me of such great war movies such as The Deer Hunter, Platoon, Born On the Fourth of July, Apocalypse Now and The Killing Fields. These were all powerful movies and this has go to be right up there. Just shows the power of foreign movies when they are actually noticed and somewhat funded. Remember this movie by no means had a big budget.”

Letters from Iwo Jima is based on the nonfiction book, Gyokusai sōshikikan no etegami (Picture letters from the Commander in Chief). The Commander in Chief, Tadamichi Kuribayashi, is portrayed by Ken Watanabe on-screen. Letters from Iwo Jima is now streaming on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and the Sky Store.