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
STRAW DOGS II – Dustin Hoffman, Susan George
Dustin Hoffman in Straw Dogs
STRAW DOGS Review: Part I
Tom Hedden loathes the Niles clan, even though his family is just as sick. In fact, all of the English villagers, including Amy, are sick in some way. This fact shines through in her claims that she hates being ogled while doing everything to encourage it. The lone exception to this seemingly genetic inbreeding is the town constable, Major John Scott (T. P. McKenna).
Amy tries to spur David to act more manly; this is especially true after the locals kill the Sumners’ cat and hang it in their closet. Some critics claim David killed the cat, but it’s clear from his initial reaction to it that he is wholly [...]
by Dan Schneider | February 28, 2007
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Tags: Classic Movies, DVDs, Film Reviews, Sam Peckinpah, Sex, Stephen Prince, Straw Dogs, Susan George, The Criterion Collection
FANNY AND ALEXANDER Review II
Pernilla Allwin, Bertil Guve in Fanny and Alexander
FANNY & ALEXANDER Review: Part I
It is only in the TV version that the depths and joys of the Ekdahls’ is plumbed fully. There are longer sequences at the opening Christmas Eve party; a deeper exploration of Carl Ekdahl and his put-upon German wife Lydia (Christina Schollin) — their marriage, his rages, and his own business failings and debts, which mirror the flaws of the Bishop; a deeper look at Emilie’s rationales, and her later hatred of the Bishop; more of life at the theater, especially a great sequence onstage with Bergman’s first film star, Gunnar Björnstrand, as actor Filip Landahl; and more of Alexander’s imagination, especially in two key scenes deleted [...]
by Dan Schneider | February 6, 2007
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Tags: Classic Movies, DVDs, Fanny and Alexander, Film Reviews, Ingmar Bergman, The Criterion Collection, The Making of Fanny and Alexander
THE BAD SLEEP WELL Review II
THE BAD SLEEP WELL Review: Part I
The saddest thing is that the corruption detailed in The Bad Sleep Well feels so minor league today that it seems almost childish when compared to Enron, Worldcom, and the many others in the years since. In a sense, Iwabuchi isn’t even the top criminal in the film. That title would belong to the corporation’s little-seen president, Arimura (Ken Mitsuda), who, later on, when things seem to be going against the corporation, sends over a vial of poison for Iwabuchi to do himself in. Watching The Bad Sleep Well, one can see exactly how the militarists that arose in the early twentieth century were so easily able to lead their country down the [...]
by Dan Schneider | January 10, 2007
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Tags: Akira Kurosawa, Classic Movies, DVDs, Film Reviews, The Bad Sleep Well, The Criterion Collection, Toshiro Mifune, Yuzuru Aizawa
