Clint Eastwood’s film Letters from ‘Iwo Jima’ grabs the first major award of the Oscar season. ‘Iwo Jima’ was named the best film of 2006 by the National Board of Review.
The film tells the story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II. The film is due to be released on December 20.This is the second film of Eastwood to be released this year and is the companion piece to his ‘Flags Of Fathers’, telling the story of 1945 fight for the island.
NBR president Annie Schulhof said,
This is his masterpiece. I was blown away by its delicacy, the poignancy of how he talks about war. I think it’s also a searing condemnation of war. It was a unique view of the Japanese side of the battle. We don’t always see that.
Helen Mirren was named best actress for her work in The Queen, in which she portrays Queen Elizabeth II as the monarch struggles to deal with the death of Princess Diana.
Best documentary went to ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, featuring former U.S. vice-president Al Gore and his concerns about global warming. Whereas Martin Scorsese was named best director for his crime thriller ‘The Departed’, while Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s ‘Volver’, starring Penelope Cruz, won best foreign film.
