Yojimbo

      An old, black-and-white movie...with subtitles galore.  

           

                                      "That's right.  Subtitles.  All subtitles."
                                                     
I will admit it was hard for me to get used to this kind of thing.  It still is.  And yet, none of those things stopped this movie from being a good one.  It still manages to deliver great characters and a believable setting.  What I enjoyed most about this film was the dialogue (even though I had to read it).  The writing and comic timing was very well done in my opinion, and I know several moments in the film that had everybody, myself included, laughing out loud.  I found Sanjuro's comments "very amusing".

Since some recent blogs have been discussing a little about whether Sanjuro is a good guy or a bad guy, I will offer up my two cents on this matter as well. I believe him to be a good guy, and the obvious hero of this story.  Not every hero needs to be always doing the right thing...not every hero needs to sacrifice everything for the greater good.  There are moments in the film (I think of when Sanjuro sits atop the bell tower to watch the battle play out), where Sanjuro is not acting the way you would expect a normal hero to act.  Most heroes would probably intervene in that situation, whereas Sanjuro finds amusement in just watching.  He also enjoys defeating his enemies, whereas most heroes may be grim in the matter and do it just because it must be done.  And that's perfectly fine.  The reality is that even heroes have their "non-heroic" sides.  It makes them more relatable in that way.  Why not enjoy destroying the bad guys?  Ultimately, Sanjuro's mission I believe is to free the town from evil, and that's exactly what he does.  So yes, to sum up, I do consider Sanjuro to be a hero-type, but perhaps not in the same way your typical hero might be.