The trade review date for Clint Eastwood‘s Letters from Iwo Jima is supposed to be either this Friday (12.8) or Monday (12.11). I don’t see how delaying reactions serves anyone’s purpose. The time is now, we’re right in the thick of it, Letters opens two weeks from today… gentlemen, start your engines.
After all, MCN’s David Poland started his last Saturday, right? The the cat was 80% out of the bag as of that moment, and it was totally out yesterday when Poland made Letters his #2 choice for the Best Picture competish in the latest Gurus of Gold chart (which went up yesterday).
This made it clear he was speaking of Letters four days ago when he wrote that “there is a very real chance that one of the ‘new’ movies will grab one of the five Best Picture slots. I could be wrong. A second viewing will answer that question more clearly. But as with Dreamgirls, if you feed the Academy a movie that allows them to do what they really want to do, most of the time they will do it.”
I don’t know what that last statement means at all, but Letters From Iwo Jima, which I saw last weekend and also admire a good deal, is in no way analagous to Dreamgirls in terms of its Academy appeal and/or psychology. But I’ve got my review half-written and I’m ready to boogie. Others are too. Let’s do it.