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western #4, 'sanjuro.' [another day, another movie.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., scott • 1 min read

Okay, so this wasn’t really a ‘Western’ at all. It was more of a ‘Samurai Comedy.’ It is the sequel to Yojimbo, and after loving the first film so much, I couldn’t help myself. I assumed some of the themes and feel would carry over from film to film, but they didn’t. This had nothing to do with the John Ford, American Western aesthetic that Kurosawa used for Yojimbo (among others).

It still had plenty of enjoyable moments, and was certainly worth my 90 minutes… especially closet guy, I loved closet guy.

However, not a Western. Maybe I’ll add a day onto the end to make up for it.

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western #3, 'stagecoach.' [another day, another movie.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., scott • 2 min read

Film #3 was the genre classic, Stagecoach. The film was #63 in the original AFI list of the greatest 100 films of the first 100 years of cinema.

Personally, I’m not really a fan.

I’m not challenging its appearance on the list by any means. I understand that the film was important in film history, if for no other reason than because it was John Ford’s first western with sound. I just find it uninteresting at best, and downright offensive at worst.

The uninteresting part of it was writing more than direction, the characters were simply all two-dimensional. The happily drunk doctor, the tough as nails marshall, the heroic outlaw who really hadn’t done anything wrong when you think about it.

The offensive part was spread all around.

There were two primary women, each fit into the mold of Madonna and the Whore, although the Madonna was closed off and kind of a bitch, while the whore had a heart of gold, the filmmakers still only had two places to put young women. That is until John Wayne rolls onto the scene and saves the poor latter woman from a life of whoredom.

I understand that when engaging film, or any art, we need to view it within the lens of its time, understanding that it was a product of a different era. That’s just not really what I am interested in doing here. I certainly want to learn about film history through all of this, but at the end of the day I am also hoping to find movies I love watching. This movie just made me sad most of the time, especially pertaining to the depiction, unsurprisingly, of Native Americans.

It wasn’t enough that we killed off entire civilizations of people, taking every part of their homeland. We also had to turn them into punch lines and story props. A Native American character didn’t have a single line of dialogue. Wait, except for the wife of a Mexican character they meet along the way, she sings in perfect spanish (inexplicably), and she is Apache.

A cheap, insincere way to pay lip service to the idea that not all ‘Indians’ are bad right? Wrong, she took off in the night and stole her husbands horse to warn Geronimo about the Stagecoach. As it would turn out, all Indians are bad. The only hope the white man has is using their tribal divisions to get them to work for you. Sort of like the Cheyenne from the opening scene who stands around like so much set dressing, while a white guy reports on his behalf that he found out Geronimo is going to attack soon. They choose to trust him, not because he is actually trustworthy, but because the Cheyenne “hate the Apaches even more than we do.”

Then, there is the climactic stagecoach chase scene where a bunch of natives chase after them shooting rifles and bows, clearly just malicious for malice’s sake. I guess we are supposed to cheer as John Wayne sits atop the coach and picks off Apache after Apache. How dare they defend their own fucking land, we’re white, we should be allowed to take a stagecoach wherever we damned well please.

It would have been a little easier to swallow if the film offered even the slightest bit of ambiguity, the slightest hint that perhaps they understood that maybe this wasn’t all ok. As it stands, I just couldn’t enjoy it. The attitudes on display are just too shameful and tragic for that.


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western #1, 'yojimbo.' [another day, another movie.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., scott • 2 min read

The month of westerns is underway, and Mr. Akira Kurosawa kicked things off in style.

There are loads of popular westerns. Some are as popular and famous as the “Man with No Name” trilogy (or the “Dollars” trilogy as it is sometimes called), but there are none more so. Popular culture still offers frequent homages and tips of the cap to Clint Eastwood as the main character in three films which can be understood as the adventures of one lone wanderer, whose name we never learn.

Eastwood obviously starred in more westerns, many of them argued as better than the “Man with No Name” films, but those big three, culminating in the prequel of sorts, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, are the best known.

The first of that trilogy was A Fistful of Dollars, which will be Western #2, and that film is a punch for punch adaptation of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. It is just one of many occasions in which some of the most significant films about the American west were directly adapted from Japanese cinema.

Let me tell you folks, Yojimbo is legit. I loved every damned minute of it.

Kurosawa was influenced by Irish American director John Ford, who directed western classics such as The Searchers, Stagecoach, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. The first two of those three are on AFI’s “100 Years, 100 Movies” list, cataloguing the 100 greatest and most important films of the first 100 years of cinema. He took the western theme and set it in Japan, turning cowboys into samurai.

However, while he was largely influenced by American westerns, it was he who is largely responsible for the trend in westerns to tell the story of one lone man beating the odds and a load of bad guys in the process.

Yojimbo is responsible for that trend.

The main character is fantastic. We never learn his name, although he makes a name up while looking out the window at Mulberry Fields, calling himself “Mulberry Fields, Age 30.” He is the ultimate badass, often to hilarious results.

Every scene is remarkably well shot. The score is great. And as alluded above, Toshirô Mifune, as the mysterious, masterless samurai, is brilliant. If I didn’t have so many westerns to watch this month, I would probably watch this one again pretty soon.

I can’t wait to watch more Kurosawa, and if the rest of the month holds up like day 1, this ridiculous idea will also go down as one of my best.

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western audacity.

By • On • In another day. another movie., gaming, scott • 1 min read

Well, another day, another movie is hitting the next level. We’ve done horror movies. We’ve done time-travel. The plan was that all of these type things would be 10-14 days long.

Not so any longer.

The Western film extravaganza is going to be a full month long.

30 Days. 30 Westerns.

During that time, I will also be watching the complete series of Deadwood. And, if Gamefly cooperates, I may be playing through Red Dead Redemption as well.

Right now, the plan is to post a short post for each day, rather than waiting until the end and posting a huge long post that no one will actually read. Any ideas on a better format?

I’m looking forward to this, while also worrying a bit that I will hate Westerns by the end.

I’m going for it, because I think there is something beautiful about endeavors which are at once audacious and pointless.

For those in the Seattle area, company is always appreciated for any and all of these films.

June 1st, Western month begins!

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the ‘western’ list is taking shape. [another day, another movie.]

By • On • In another day. another movie., scott • 1 min read

Thanks to some internal conversations, and to the helpful feedback from readers, the list of Westerns is starting to look pretty good. We are actually getting to a point pretty quickly where I will either have to stretch Westerns out to a full month, or else split Westerns into two different marathons (or whatever you call a marathon when it takes place daily, instead of all at once).

There are some which are still up in the air. So far, here is the list of definite films included:

  1. Unforgiven
  2. The Magnificent Seven
  3. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
  4. The Searchers
  5. Hang ‘Em High
  6. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
  7. High Plains Drifter
  8. Blazing Saddles
  9. High Noon
  10. Tombstone
  11. 3:10 to Yuma
  12. Firefly marathon, followed by Serenity

I also think that after this whole thing is over, I will use this opportunity to start watching Deadwood.

Any votes one way or the other?

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