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"Look upon the ruins of the castle of delusion..." Akira Kurosawa has plenty of formidable forerunners to draw upon, for true cinematic Shakespeare he gazes back to Lang's Nibelungen films. His Macbeth is the general back from squashing a rebellion (Toshiro Mifune), lost in the woods-maze alongside the fellow warrior (Minoru Chiaki). "A long, quiet sleep" is all that's desired, instead comes the nightmare of prophecies and omens, of the spirit (Chieko Naniwa) whose dirge amid piles of skeletons morphs into a thunderous cackle. Lord of his manor, not enough for the wife (Isuzu Yamada) inflaming his ambition one murmur at a time. "This is a wicked world. To save yourself you often must kill first." Misty volcanic rock outside and inside bare hardwood floors, ideal for the stark Noh staging. His Majesty (Takamaru Sasaki) sleeps in the chamber next to the secret room stained by traitorous blood, torches visible behind paper screens are followed by the lady's scheme, she disappears into the darkness of a doorway and reemerges with a jug of drugged saké. The riderless horse, the vacant seat at the celebratory dinner suddenly occupied. Fortresses erected on muddy grounds, mercilessly whipped by the wind: "The foundations have long been rotting." The funeral procession is from Welles' Othello, the proliferation of birds is a shock emulated briefly by Bergman in Hour of the Wolf. The slain friend's son (Akira Kubo) leads the charge against the usurper, who waits with stillborn heir and mad missus and the knowledge that victory is his "until the very trees of Spider's Web Forest rise." The other side of the Kurosawa humanism, a view of bellicose fools in an ecosystem of carnage. De Palma in Scarface gleefully updates the Saint Sebastian parody of the climactic storm of arrows. Cinematography by Asakazu Nakai. With Takashi Shimura, Hiroshi Tachikawa, and Kichijiro Ueda. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |