Part of Akira Kurosawa: A Retrospective
A testament to the goodness of humankind, Akira Kurosawa’s RED BEARD chronicles the tumultuous relationship between an arrogant young doctor and a compassionate clinic director. Toshiro Mifune, in his last role for Kurosawa, gives a powerhouse performance as the dignified yet empathic director who guides his pupil to maturity, teaching the embittered intern to appreciate the lives of his destitute patients. Perfectly capturing the look and feel of 19th-century Japan, Kurosawa’s final film in black-and-white weaves a fascinating Cinemascope tapestry of time, place and emotion.
“The entertainment value of the thing is off the chart. At the same time, all of the auteur’s elements are on display…. The best of Kurosawa’s films are a challenge to look into our greatest fears and at our most terrible afflictions, whether personal or systemic, without turning away. Arguably the best Kurosawa film, RED BEARD does not turn away.” —Dan Jardine, Slant Magazine “Akira Kurosawa’s RED BEARD is a passionate humanist statement, almost the last he would make about an exemplary human being. After completing its two years of filming in 1965, the master would turn to flawed and damaged characters…. Dr. Kyojô Niide [Toshiro Mifune] would be the closest he ever came to creating a man moral and good in every respect. In the film you can sense Kurosawa’s best nature shining.” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times “As the older doctor, Toshiro Mifune is superb; and though the film has been criticized for its excessive sentimentality by some, it’s a masterful evocation of period and a probing study of the conflict between responsibility and idealism. A mature work that merits the term most apply to it: Dostoyevskian.” —Don Druker, Chicago Reader
