Movie Review: Kagemusha
Year of Release: 1980
Country of Origin: Japan
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara, Jinpachi Nezu
Plot outline: When a powerful warlord dies, a thief is recruited to impersonate him (IMDb).
Kagemusha is another entry in Kurosawa's decades-long string of samurai movies. Although not without its problems in pacing and stiffness, it is better than some of his more famous movies, such as Yojimbo. It is also not up to the level of his best work, such as Throne of Blood, Ran and The Seven Samurai. The story is familiar, and yet unique. The warlord Shingen is mortally wounded while besieging a fortress. His dying wish is that his dynasty continue. This is accomplished by using an impersonator, Kagemusha (Tatsuya Nakadai), who is a thief with humble ancestry. Kagemusha serves as Shingen's stand-in for three years, improving morale and even helping to win battles. The most impressive aspect of Kagemusha is its cinematography, costumes and sets. Many scenes have waves of soldiers clad in armor and carrying banners, set against the sun and the countryside. Kurosawa gets even more from the battlefield images by judicious use of composer Shinichiro Ikebe's score. Outstanding cinematography and convincing sets and costumes are a familiar hallmark for Kurosawa throughout his career. Many scenes, however, are lengthy and static. People sit in a room and talk, and move so infrequently that it is sometimes difficult to tell which character is talking. It is true, however, that this criticism has to be diluted by putting it in a context of cultural differences and expectations. Western audiences want action from their war movies, and may have less appreciation for character depth and development. Nonetheless, the movie improves markedly whenever Shingen's young grandson Takemaru (Kota Yui) is on camera. Takemaru's energy, enthusiasm, and honesty of expression provides a stark contrast to the cynical and circumspect adult men that fill most of the movie's roles. Kagemusha is forced to subjugate his honest and emotive natural personality in order to impersonate Shingen. He can only be himself around Takemaru, who is eager to see him as something other than a stern monolith. (BK)
My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
Movie Review: Rio Grande
Year of Release: 1950
Country of Origin: USA
Director: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Ben Johnson, Claude Jarman Jr.
Plot outline: A cavalry unit located on the Mexican border must control Indian uprisings (IMDb).
Rio Grande is set at a remote, understaffed fort near the Mexican border in 1879. Lt. Col. Yorke (John Wayne) is facing an uprising of Apache Indians, who emerge from protected villages in Mexico for hit and run attacks. Yorke's young son has failed West Point and enlisted to prove his manhood, by coincidence assigned to his father's command. Wayne's estranged wife Kathleen (Maureen O'Hara) arrives to claim her underaged son from the Army, and rekindle romance with Wayne. Meanwhile, Tyree (Ben Johnson) is wanted for manslaughter, and there are several songs from the impressive "Sons of the Pioneers". Competently directed, with a fine cast and cinematography, the movie is surprisingly sentimental but sometimes drags. As usual in Ford movies, the Indians are faceless savages, with audience sympathy intended for the cavalry soldiers. Claude Jarman Jr. is well-cast for the role of Wayne's son. He looks the boy his character is supposed to be, and conveys the earnest and determined character traits necessary for the role. The father-son/commander-recruit/ guerilla-war theme was previously used in Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), another movie in which the son has to perform heroic feats to win the respect of his father. (BK)
My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
Movie Review: The Cassandra Crossing
Year of Release: 1976
Country of Origin: West Germany, Italy, UK
Director: George P. Cosmatos
Cast: Sophia Loren, Richard Harris, Martin Sheen, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster
Plot outline: Passengers on a European train have been exposed to a deadly virus. Nobody will let them off the train so what happens next? (IMDb)
The American disaster movie was a staple of 1970s cinema. Indeed, it proved such a bankable formula that it was emulated by an unusual West Germany, Italy, UK co-production with an international all-star cast. Originally finalized over a quick meeting between mega-producers Lew Grade and Carlo Ponti, who intended the production to feature his then-wife Sophia Loren, The Cassandra Crossing was announced as part of the ambitious Grade’s planned new investment strategy, consisting of diverse features in a busy production schedule. Nevertheless, the lavish, thrilling adventure that Grade and Ponti promised attracted financing and distribution and would prove to be director George P. Cosmatos’ entry into a career as something of an expatriate journeyman, eventually leading him to Hollywood. The movie was not the hit entertainment that its producers were hoping for, however, and indeed remains more known outside of America, having failed to secure proper distribution in that all-important market. Nevertheless, it remains a remarkable achievement for the ease with which the always under-rated Cosmatos was able to transform a uniquely American genre into a rather anti-American statement with particular echoes for Europe post World War II. (RC)
My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
Movie Review: The Longest Day
Year of Release: 1962
Country of Origin: USA
Directors: Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki
Cast: John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Richard Todd, Red Buttons, Richard Beymer, Robert Ryan
Plot outline: The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view (IMDb).
The Longest Day was a mammoth project dramatizing D-day, the Allied invasion of France. It was nearly three hours in length and with an enormous ensemble cast, all playing supporting roles. The production was very conscientious about realism: the actors were always of the same nationality as their characters, and spoke in their native languages. The American role in the invasion is not exaggerated, and the German soldiers and officers are not portrayed as brutal stereotypes. The truth is, a great invasion makes for great drama, and with the attention to detail and production values of The Longest Day, the movie couldn't miss. Complaints about the movie are minor: strafing planes don't bother to make a second pass, it is implied that the Germans lost the war because unstable Hitler wouldn't release the Panzer tanks, and attempts at comic relief generally fall flat. The cast is so enormous that it is difficult to remember who is what. But it is fun playing "name the actor": heavyweights John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Rod Steiger and Henry Fonda are easily spotted, as are middleweights such as Eddie Albert, Red Buttons, Roddy McDowell, Peter Lawford, George Segal and Jeffrey Hunter. For some reason, a number of U.S. pop singers and teen idols were cast: Paul Anka, Fabian, Tommy Sands, and Sal Mineo. John Wayne and Henry Fonda would later have key roles in bloated war movies that were not successful, (The Green Berets and Midway respectively) demonstrating that the drama of war does not always come across on movie. (BK)
My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
Movie Review: Duel
Year of Release: 1971
Country of Origin: USA
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Dennis Weaver, Eddie Firestone, Gene Dynarski, Tim Herbert
Plot outline: A business commuter is pursued and terrorized by a malevolent driver of a massive tractor-trailer (IMDb).
Steven Spielberg first made his mark with a television movie about a diabolical truck, a subject that would seem to have only limited possibilities. In fact, Duel took advantage of the very narrowness of its premise, building excitement from the most minimal ingredients and the simplest of situations. Even without benefit of hindsight, Duel looks like the work of an unusually talented young director. Duel begins when a California businessman embarks on a car trip and happens to pass a certain truck on a two-lane road. The truck, which seems to have a mind of its own (the driver is never clearly seen), wants revenge and spends the rest of the journey getting it. The trip, which is a succession of nerve-wracking chases (truck gets behind car and forces it to speed up; truck gets in front of car and tries to force it off the road; truck butts car into path of oncoming train, etc.), was indeed a long one. According to the production notes, Dennis Weaver, who plays the car's driver David Mann, put in more than 2,000 miles during the 16-day shooting schedule. Duel might almost have been a silent movie, because it expresses so much through action and so little through the words. As the movie's only real character, Weaver gives a few internal monologues that only awkwardly express Mann's anxiety. These and a few whimsical conversations from a call-in radio show are really all the character development the movie provides, and they're much weaker than the ingenious visual effects. Spielberg wasn't purely a special-effects director in those days, and he isn't one now, but the people in Duel seem particularly remote. The minor characters, at the various stops Mann makes along the highway, are uniformly freakish. And Mann himself is shown to be a henpecked husband who regains his masculinity only through the contest on the road. The ending is abrupt, but the main impression left is one of talent and energy. Spielberg seemed, with this movie, to be headed for bigger and better things. Sure enough, he was! (NYT)
My judgement: ***1/2 out of 4 stars
Year of Release: 1980
