Review of Yojimbo (1961) by Peter R — 31 Mar 2011

6/6: Here is yet another great film by the lengendary Akira Kurosawa. Many critics have said that this film inspired Western films to come. That may be, but I also believe it was inspired by Westerns from the past. Take for instance the beginning, when Toshiro Mifune's character wanders into the town, a mysterious Samurai in which we the viewers no nothing about. Two American great films begin the same way: "Bad Day at Black Rock" (can be considered both a western and a film noir) in which Spencer Tracy enters a small village under mysterious circumstances, in which no one has really any clue who he is; and "Shane," where Alan Ladd wanders in on a horse to a poor farmstead in the middle of nowhere. Next, I found the premise to be similar to "Rio Bravo" in which the village was being terrorized by a number of violent bandits. The film may have been an influence to American westerns to come, but I also thought it was influenced by past great films.

Now onto the film, I loved Toshiro Mifune's character. Despite his heroic efforts, he was mainly just pure evil. There were several notable scenes that I would never call heroic. Take this one in particular, where he watches the villagers versus the gang members, and he just laughs at both them. He does not provide an assistance what-so-ever. Another instance is the process of auctioning himself off to the villages, offering himself as a bodyguard for the whoever pays him the most. Finally, is his constant switching from being the bodyguard for the bandits and the innocent villagers. By the end, because of his selfishness, the village is essentially destroyed and most of the bandits and villagers are dead. One could say this is Kurosawa's most corrupt character in all his films. I also believe this character was even inspired by John Wayne's corrupt characters in "Red River" and "The Searchers," equally as evil.