2012 Film Challenge #9: Yojimbo
"In this town I'll get paid for killing...
...and this town is full of men who are better off dead."
The 2012 Film Challenge returns to the work of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa with 1961's Yojimbo, or The Bodyguard. It is a another samurai film, but it is rather a bit different than The Seven Samurai, as there is no noble cause or grand sweep of the human condition here. There are only four kinds of people in Yojimbo: the wicked, the innocent, the lone Samurai and the dead.
The year is 1860, and a solitary warrior, the masterless samurai, walks down an empty road. By chance he finds his way to an isolated town and immediately discovers that the political situation is primed to explode. The government is corrupt and two rival gangs of criminals are fighting for control; on one side is the pimp Seibei and on the other is Ushitora, Seibei's ex-lieutenant. With the help of the town's two amoral businessmen, who themselves are also at war, each has a formed an army of "bodyguards." Two gangs of evil men...and one samurai in the middle.
If this all sounds familiar, it's because you might have seen it before. Yojimbo was influenced by both the detective novels of Dashiell Hammet and the Hollywood western, and it became a real (well, sort of) western when Sergio Leone made an exact copy three years later entitled A Fistful of Dollars. Thirty-two years after that it was remade again, this time as a gangster movie, as Last Man Standing.
There's little surprise that the film was copied, since it is famed for its dazzlingly ingenious plot. The story has more twists than a snake in a hurry, and in the middle of it all is the legendary "Sanjuro," a gruff, solitary soldier whose skill with his sword is only matched by his cunning. The character is, of course, played by the great Toshiro Mifune, one of my favorite actors, and his performance has been often imitated but never equaled. He scratches at lice and rubs at his beard with an artlessness that hides his quick wits, but he is a man with a conscience too, and he winces in pain when he is reminded that destruction is his only stock and trade.
Overall the film is grand entertainment on a larger-than-life scale. We thrill at the swordsmanship and cunning of the samurai as he tests his mettle against the lawless and unjust; when the action does come, it is a controlled explosion, a flash that lasts a moment but burns furious in the mind's eye like the afterimage of a lightning strike. They are the assured, economical movements of a virtuoso, but they are as devastating as a fireball. There is a grim irony and dark humor here, though, because catharsis comes at a price.
How did it hold up? It's a great movie. Personally I may have seen the story one too many times, though—both in Yojimbo itself and in A Fistful of Dollars. As fantastic as the acting, directing and cinematography are, it's the plot that's center stage, and once you know it backwards and forwards it takes a little bit away from the enjoyment. Still, though, if you've never seen the movie, run out and give it a shot. You'll be in for a treat.
...and this town is full of men who are better off dead."
The 2012 Film Challenge returns to the work of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa with 1961's Yojimbo, or The Bodyguard. It is a another samurai film, but it is rather a bit different than The Seven Samurai, as there is no noble cause or grand sweep of the human condition here. There are only four kinds of people in Yojimbo: the wicked, the innocent, the lone Samurai and the dead.
The year is 1860, and a solitary warrior, the masterless samurai, walks down an empty road. By chance he finds his way to an isolated town and immediately discovers that the political situation is primed to explode. The government is corrupt and two rival gangs of criminals are fighting for control; on one side is the pimp Seibei and on the other is Ushitora, Seibei's ex-lieutenant. With the help of the town's two amoral businessmen, who themselves are also at war, each has a formed an army of "bodyguards." Two gangs of evil men...and one samurai in the middle.
If this all sounds familiar, it's because you might have seen it before. Yojimbo was influenced by both the detective novels of Dashiell Hammet and the Hollywood western, and it became a real (well, sort of) western when Sergio Leone made an exact copy three years later entitled A Fistful of Dollars. Thirty-two years after that it was remade again, this time as a gangster movie, as Last Man Standing.
There's little surprise that the film was copied, since it is famed for its dazzlingly ingenious plot. The story has more twists than a snake in a hurry, and in the middle of it all is the legendary "Sanjuro," a gruff, solitary soldier whose skill with his sword is only matched by his cunning. The character is, of course, played by the great Toshiro Mifune, one of my favorite actors, and his performance has been often imitated but never equaled. He scratches at lice and rubs at his beard with an artlessness that hides his quick wits, but he is a man with a conscience too, and he winces in pain when he is reminded that destruction is his only stock and trade.
Overall the film is grand entertainment on a larger-than-life scale. We thrill at the swordsmanship and cunning of the samurai as he tests his mettle against the lawless and unjust; when the action does come, it is a controlled explosion, a flash that lasts a moment but burns furious in the mind's eye like the afterimage of a lightning strike. They are the assured, economical movements of a virtuoso, but they are as devastating as a fireball. There is a grim irony and dark humor here, though, because catharsis comes at a price.
How did it hold up? It's a great movie. Personally I may have seen the story one too many times, though—both in Yojimbo itself and in A Fistful of Dollars. As fantastic as the acting, directing and cinematography are, it's the plot that's center stage, and once you know it backwards and forwards it takes a little bit away from the enjoyment. Still, though, if you've never seen the movie, run out and give it a shot. You'll be in for a treat.
Labels: Movies
posted by Joe Gola at 8:23 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home