Bad Invasion

Hey, you, elderly patrons of the 7:30 Friday night showing of Letters From Iwo Jima at the Tivoli Cinemas. Not sure if you read the preview correctly, but Iwo Jima is not some green-tea ice cream. It is, in fact, an island in the Pacific on which an important battle in World War II was fought. And psst — spoiler! — the Japanese lost, sustaining heavy casualties. And so, a viewer of this Clint Eastwood gem might have done well to expect a few scenes of graphic violence and lots of gunfire. To the old ladies cowering in the first couple of rows, who would shriek and cover their eyes during scenes of warfare and tsk loudly at each and every moment of peril or suffering: Next time, stick to a nice Jane Austen adaptation. I promise, there will be no blood. And to the elderly gentleman sitting behind me, who could not resist reading many of the subtitles out loud or narrating some scenes in which the action requires some intuition (yes, we guessed that when the soldier untied his shoes and placed his big toe on the trigger of a rifle, he was most likely going to commit suicide … and yes, we all know that waving a white flag means surrender): Invest in a Blockbuster card. For the sake of the Tivoli’s future generations.

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