Movie- "Rashomon" -1959
Language- Japanese
Director- Akira Kurosawa
Runtime- 88 minutes
Awards-Directors Guild of America: Best Director (nominee)
Venice International Film Festival: Best File (winner)
National Board of Review: Best Director (winner)
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Rashomon started off in mystery as the men were talking. It began with two men in absolute shock and couldn't believe this story of what had happened. They really built up the suspense quickly as the viewer wants to know what happened and what's the story! As the man begins his story the film goes to back in time and the viewer gets to see each person testimony, none of which even matched. This seemed important because each one is portrayed as a flashback which may have possibly started a trend we see even in modern films.
Let's highlight some aspect in an article from the Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert about the film. To my surprise he talked about the flashbacks in the movie and called them "smart" while calling other films that use them just to fill in information as "lazy". He also mentions that the movie ends with "three self confessions of the murder, but no solution". This definitely is a new concept in film at the time and might lead to some people who don't understand it.
Another article I want to take a look at is from EBSCOhost and talks about an interesting fact. Why did the bandit admit to killing the man in the woods? The possibility could be that he and in fact everyone else truly believes they are telling the truth. Perception is key and in the movie the commoner even says "men can't tell the truth, not even to themselves". It makes one think, do things really happen the way we perceive them to? That's an interesting and deep statement.
In my opinion this movie for the time period was very well done. There were a few odd camera angles such as looking straight up of the sky through the tree canopy and from directly below the actor. I really don't see that in a lot of movies and to be honest I'm not sure whether I like it or not, it got my attention and it looked cool but it's just not what I'm use to. On another note I really did get the feeling that I was watching a modern day murder mystery at times during the film. Seeing several peoples interpretations of the same event was pretty interesting and reminded me of something out of "12 Angry Men" or "My Cousin Vinnie".Overall my rating of "Rashomon" is a 7/10.
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