THE HUMAN CONDITION Review II
THE HUMAN CONDITION Review: Part I
The Human Condition is often referred to short-handily as an anti-war or anti-military film. That’s a fair characterization as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough. What Kobayashi’s film does is deflate any and all of the ideologies bequeathed to us by the modern world, showing them up as pernicious myths. Kaji’s belief that labor can be managed humanely and rationally is swept away by his time in the work camps; his patriotism, by the conduct of the Japanese military; his sympathy for socialism, by his encounter with the tender mercies of the Red Army. Even his [...]
by Dan Erdman | October 15, 2009
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Tags: Classic Movies, DVDs, Film Reviews, Masaki Kobayashi, Tatsuya Nakadai, The Criterion Collection, The Human Condition
THE HUMAN CONDITION d: Masaki Kobayashi
The Human Condition Trilogy
No Greater Love (1959), The Road to Eternity (1959), A Soldier’s Prayer (1961)
Direction: Masaki Kobayashi
Screenplay: Zenzo Matsuyama and Masaki Kobayashi; from Jumpei Gomikawa’s novel
Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama
Michiyo Aratama, Tatsuya Nakadai in The Human Condition
Masaki Kobayashi’s The Human Condition, based on Jumpei Gomikawa’s novel, is probably as well known for its scope and scale as for any other reason. Originally released as three films — No Greater Love (1959), The Road to Eternity (1959), and A Soldier’s Prayer (1961) — Criterion has packaged everything together as one massive, nine-and-a-half-hour opus chronicling the adventures of Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai), a young Japanese unwillingly participating in the Imperial Army in World War II. The film’s [...]
by Dan Erdman | October 15, 2009
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Tags: A Soldier's Prayer, Classic Movies, DVDs, Film Reviews, Masaki Kobayashi, Michiyo Aratama, No Greater Love, Tatsuya Nakadai, The Criterion Collection, The Human Condition, The Road to Eternity, War Movies
