Yojimbo

I really liked Yojimbo.  I came into this movie excited because I had seen Sergio Leone’s “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” and loved it.  I was excited to see the films that inspired Leone.  I figured that the original would do it best and I have to say Kurosawa did a pretty darn good job.  I unfortunately have not seen “For a Few Dollars More”, or “A Fistful of Dollars” or whichever one based itself on this movie, so no comparison can be made but you can absolutely see Kurosawa’s style coming through in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”.  This was the first Kurosawa film I had ever seen and it did not disappoint.  I think my favorite element was the man with no Japanese name, I can’t remember what he called himself.  The character was so calm, cool and collected throughout the whole film, even after he had been beaten savagely.  I love the way he hands the gun to Unosuke knowing that Unosuke would not have the strength to pull the trigger.  I like the way he calmly and expertly pits the two gangs against each other.  He says he’s doing it for the money but I suspect he had a nobler reason behind it.  I also think he was just curious to see what would happen.  I like that the character gave off an air of simplicity but was actually very deep and complex.  From what I’ve seen in this movie Kurosawa is very skilled at creating characters.