Yojimbo's through the years

The Yojimbo character has managed to become it's own sort of sub archetype that can be found in nearly every form of media. I thought I would cover some of the characters that have fallen into this sub archetype.

1)

Obviously the orignial, Yojimbo (Toshiro Mifune), you can't have a list about this archetype without the original. This character epitomizes the character. Mysterious past, unknown name, a skill set rivaled by no one, and finally he attempts to convince everyone he has no allegiance.












2)

The second character to fall into the Yojimbo archetype would have to be Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name. He fits perfectly within the archetype mostly because the character was based directly off of Mifune's Yojimbo. He is all of the traits mentioned above, but with one added feature that has since become essential for the archetype, a man of few words.




3)

Another less popular character to fall into the archetype would be One Eye from the film Valhalla Rising. This character is an incredibly dark and violent take on the archetype. He spends most of the movie convincing everyone around him that he is a dangerous man, if only to protect a young boy from being killed by a group of crusaders they have fallen in with.


4)

And finally one of the most recent renditions of the character can be found in the character of The Driver in the movie drive. This character falls in love with his next door neighbor whose husband is released from prison. In order to help him out of a prison debt The Driver helps him pull off a heist, but as always goes in these situations something goes wrong. This is another very violent take on the character, but very interesting and slightly more complicated than the others.