Rashömon

Rashömon (1950)
Director: Akira Kurosawa

I hate to review this movie. I know its one of those films that every film student knows and loves. I hate to review it because I am afraid after I give my verdict I will never be allowed to make a film again. But I have to be honest; I just didn’t like this movie even though I really really wanted to.

I think maybe this movie is important because it was new and original for the 1950’s, but now that it’s 2006…its really not that great. I suppose it is a decent movie and all in terms of technical skill, but I was bored to death. It seemed really slow. Some of the fight scenes seemed way over the top (as did most of the acting) and then other fight scenes seemed so ridiculous that were 100% unbelievable. I mean this is Kurosawa we are talking about. The guy is supposed to be one of the few real film geniuses. So how is it he can’t film a fight scene that makes me say “Yeah, this is real. These guys are really trying to hurt each other”.

This may have been one of the firsts time the whole idea of subjective narrative was done, and they say this is the first film that anyone pointed the camera at the sun. Well, if that’s all this film has to offer I could really just have skipped it. I highly doubt I will ever watch this film ever again in my life. There is just way to much other good material out there to waste on films like this. Sorry Kurosawa.

My rating: 3 out of 5