Clint Eastwood's 2006 film based on James Bradley's book was adapted from a screenplay by writer William Broyles, Jr. The film stars Ryan Phillippe as John "Doc" Bradley, James' father, Jesse Bradford (Rene Gagnon), Adam Beach (Ira Hayes), Barry Pepper (Mike Strank), Paul Walker (Hank Hansen), and Jamie Bell (Ralph Ignatowski). The movie was well reviewed and tried to show the events at Iwo Jima from the American side.
Eastwood also directed and co-produced a 2006 film about the battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective, Letters from Iwo Jima, based on the books Picture Letters from the Commander in Chief by General Tadamichi Kuribayashi and So Sad to Fall in Battle: An Account of War by Kumio Kakehashi. It stars Ken Watanabe as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi and Kazunari Ninomiya. Even more critically acclaimed than Flags of Our Fathers, Letters for Iwo Jima was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.
These two films are complementary in nature, as they offer different perspectives on the same event. The depiction through two movies of each side of the war gives a more complete picture of what occurred at Iwo Jima, and Eastwood's temporally linked release of the two films emphasizes their connection.
