Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, November 19, 2021

KUROSAWA (2000)

Standard bio on Akira Kurosawa, but high standard.  A British project, first seen Stateside on PBS/Great Performances, Adam Low’s film is particularly good on the director’s early years, helped by Kurosawa’s SOMETHING LIKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY (excerpts read by Paul Scofield, an odd vocal choice that works), which unfortunately for the film ends with the international release of ROSHOMON/’50.  Those childhood years: difficult father; beloved older brother (a silent film ‘narrator,' double suicide with fiancé); the 1923 Tokyo earthquake with enough destructive force to match the Hiroshima bombing; fascinating stuff.  Then the roll-call of films, regrettably skewed toward the over-praised late epics which came pre-approved by awe-struck Hollywood turks of the day (Spielberg, Lucas, Scorsese, Coppola), leaving better work (THE BAD SLEEP WELL; SANJURO/’62 - the superior sequel to YOJIMBO; HIGH AND LOW/’63) unmentioned.  Even THE HIDDEN FORTRESS/’58, fodder for George Lucas’s STAR WARS given a pass.  On the other hand, usually irrelevant Hollywood star interviews earn their spot with James Coburn linking SEVEN SAMURAI/’54 to his THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN/’60 and Clint Eastwood rhyming YOJIMBO/’61 and A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS/’64.  For once, a bio both useful and interesting.  But newbies to Kurosawa should keep in mind that many of the earlier films look far better now than they do here thanks to recent restorations.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: There’s more than Samurai Warriors to Kurosawa.  Surprise yourself as he channels Frank Capra (I kid you not) on an outlier pic, SCANDAL/50, made immediately before ROSHOMON.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2010/11/shubun-scandal-1950.html

READ ALL ABOUT IT: As mentioned, Kurosawa’s unusual auto-bio SOMETHING LIKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

No comments: