Akira Kurosawa’s: The Quiet Duel This may or may not be useful as a review, but The Quiet Duel plays like one of those teleplays that they used to do back in the 50s. Like they’d get Lee J. Cobb to star in Death of a Salesman (or something) and it’d be this brilliant theater/TV crossover thing (the likes of which we’ll never see again.) The Quiet Duel really feels like that.
How is it as a film? Not one of Kurosawa’s best, but not his worst either.
Intellectually I’d say probably Sanshiro Sugata II. It’s a bland film where you can practically see him going through the motions. Donald Richie said (paraphrasing) that it was like what the original would have been had an ordinary director made it and that comparison is spot on. It could have been replaced with any standard martial arts movie from any time from the 40s through probably the mid 70s and no one would have noticed.
I disliked Rhapsody in August more, but I’m not a fan of Richard Gere at all so his presence colored that a little bit for me.
Yes, Sanshiro Sugata II might indeed be it. That, I suppose, is what you get when you force a director to do a film against their film on a subject that they have already visited and have no intention on visiting again.
Although I might actually personally vote for The Most Beautiful.
While I am not a huge fan of Richard Gere either, I personally think that the main problem with Rhapsody in August is the child actors, not him. In fact, I found Gere surprisingly good in the film. But I seem to be quite alone with this opinion.
Java+++ is the blog of artist, web technologist and author Rob Larsen. It's about art, sports, technology, movies, music, food & whatever else tickles his fancy.
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By Vili Maunula 2007/02/11 - 04:50
An interesting comparison. 🙂
Just curious — what do you think is Kurosawa’s worst film?
By rob 2007/02/11 - 09:24
Intellectually I’d say probably Sanshiro Sugata II. It’s a bland film where you can practically see him going through the motions. Donald Richie said (paraphrasing) that it was like what the original would have been had an ordinary director made it and that comparison is spot on. It could have been replaced with any standard martial arts movie from any time from the 40s through probably the mid 70s and no one would have noticed.
I disliked Rhapsody in August more, but I’m not a fan of Richard Gere at all so his presence colored that a little bit for me.
By Vili Maunula 2007/02/11 - 16:14
Yes, Sanshiro Sugata II might indeed be it. That, I suppose, is what you get when you force a director to do a film against their film on a subject that they have already visited and have no intention on visiting again.
Although I might actually personally vote for The Most Beautiful.
While I am not a huge fan of Richard Gere either, I personally think that the main problem with Rhapsody in August is the child actors, not him. In fact, I found Gere surprisingly good in the film. But I seem to be quite alone with this opinion.
By rob 2007/02/11 - 16:18
I have The Most Beautiful on its way this week, so I’ll be able to put that to the test shortly.
I’ve promised myself to revisit Rhapsody in August again one day. We’ll see how it turns out the second time…
By Vili Maunula 2007/02/12 - 03:42
Oops! I hope that I haven’t now sabotaged your enjoyment of The Most Beautiful with my comment.
By rob 2007/02/12 - 22:52
Ah, no worries there. I’m almost more interested now.