Movie thoughts and fiction updates.
#16 in my ranking of Akira Kurosawa's filmography. This is the film that led to Akira Kurosawa's suicide attempt. After Red Beard, Kurosawa had gone to Hollywood and attempted to put together a pair of films, most notably the Japanese segments of Tora! Tora! Tora!, a process that ended up getting Kurosawa fired after a… Continue reading Dodes’ka-den
#8 in my ranking of Akira Kurosawa's filmography. This is the film that ended the working relationship between Toshiro Mifune and Akira Kurosawa, a production that went for two years, required a massive amount of art direction to bring Kurosawa's vision of a 19th century village to life (that we barely see in the film),… Continue reading Red Beard
#10 in my ranking of Akira Kurosawa's filmography. This is a mixture of two film genres that end up complimenting each other rather perfectly. The main character disappears from half the movie, and yet it still works. This is one of Kurosawa's most experimental films, and it's couched in seemingly straightforward styles of storytelling, a… Continue reading High and Low
#20 in my ranking of Akira Kurosawa's filmography. After the large success of Yojimbo, Toho asked Akira Kurosawa to create a follow-up using Toshiro Mifune's main character in a new adventure. Taking a previous script that adapted the novel Hibi Heian by Shugoro Yamamoto and inserting the character of Sanjuro, Kurosawa made a solid follow… Continue reading Sanjuro
Great Directors I've gone through the work of a bunch of directors, every feature length film they ever made from Carl Th. Dreyer to Christopher Nolan. I've chosen directors whose work interests me, who have made films that I love. As I've gone through these dozens and dozens of films by recognizable filmmakers I've found… Continue reading Sergio Leone – A Retrospective
David Vining, Author 