Outrage

Year: 1964

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Ritt

Review

okay remake of kurosawa’s rendition of the japanese short story “rashomon.” the most notable thing here is james wong howe’s cinematography, it pops like few films do…it reminded me of “night of the hunter,” which i consider to have some of the best black and white photography ever. i liked kurosawa’s movement and use of the camera more in his rendition, but you can’t knock this one for its visual qualities. that said, this remake falls a bit short in other arenas. paul newman plays a mexican bandit and does his best toshiro mifune impression, but falls well short. his mistake is in trying to emulate mifune rather than making the character his own. shatner does his usual gig and, as usual, it’s good. edward g. robinson is a standout as the cynical criminal character of the trio.

acting and photography aside, this film just wasn’t as well directed as rashomon. martin ritt has some good credits to his name (norma rae, hud, hombre), but this one just doesn’t have the same emotional resonance that the original does. at the same time it doesn’t do as good a job of exploring the shifting nature of perspective, or demonstrating the relative nature of truth. there are two directorial decisions that kurosawa made that ritt left out which helped buttress these points: kurosawa has each character tell their story while facing the camera – this gives the impression that the audience is the jury; ritt doesn’t do the same things with the camera movement and having the camera obscured by plants and trees – this lends well to the theme of fluidity, and is especially effective when the forest canopy obscures the sunlight when kurosawa points the camera directly at the sun (something which he may have been the first to do).