Reviews by yord

Widely regarded as a masterpiece, I went into this movie with high expectations, all of which were exceeded. Kurosawa tells the story of a group of unemployed samurai who are enlisted to defend a poor farming village in the mountains from being raided by returning bandits. But there is a catch—the samurai must work for free. Most villagers do not expect them to find anyone willing to help, but the determination of one of them catches the attention of Kambei Shimada (Takashi Shimura, also wonderful in Kurosawa’s Ikiru), a noble and big-hearted ronin with impressive skills. With his help they assemble six more warriors, each with their own distinct personality, to help prepare the village for defense. The film gives great insight on the traditions of ancient Japan, meditations on morality, and the nature of war and death. When the end of the film comes up, you are so connected with the many characters that you can’t help but relate to the somberness of Kambei—when is the safety of a village worth more than the life of one close friend? A very powerful film, worth watching for Toshiro Mifune’s performance alone.

This film treats its audience intelligently, and starts in medias res--we are shown One-Eye, silent as always, tied around his neck to a post in the middle of a mud pit and forced to fight two Viking-looking warriors. He brutalizes them. Money exchanges hands and One-Eye submissively allows himself to be transported back to his cage. We are left to piece the clues together ourselves, but Refn has a clear theme: obsessions with power. One-Eye is almost superhuman in his fighting abilities but when he is freed he is ineffably calm and collected, and no one dares to question his power--not even the group of Christian warriors that take him along for their journey to the Crusades. Without giving too much away, they never make it to the desert and the story gets more bizarre as the speaking characters lose their grip on their sanity and power. Everyone but One-Eye is lost and he has no answers for the Crusaders, though they see their fates in his eye, and his eye says to them: “You are all going to die.” The movie is an eclectic mix of anime-, western-, samurai-, and epic-styled films, and the mix serves it well. When I show this movie to friends, I don’t expect them to like it, but they’ve all been as mesmerized as I have. Mads Mikkelsen is to thank for this, saying so much without saying anything at all.

Probably Christopher Nolan’s best-known work before he directed The Dark Knight. It tells the tale of Leonard who, after a traumatic head injury, can no longer make long-term memories. But this is a very clever film because the whole story is told in reverse-chronological order with black and white segments peppered between scenes of a telephone conversation between Leonard and a mystery man. Watching this, you are as confused and suspicious as Leonard is because you can never be sure if you’ve met someone before or if this person is taking advantage of you. All we can do is trust Leonard and his notes, which isn’t much at all, as he often admits to himself. Leonard becomes a tool for vengeance with his one goal tattooed on his chest—John G. raped and murdered my wife. Find him and kill him. This is a very successful and cerebral film that examines the fallibility of memory and the limits of vengeance. Seek it out.

It seems ironic at how little I have to say about such a wordy film, but it's just simply brilliant.