Part of Akira Kurosawa: A Retrospective
Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Akira Kurosawa’s tightly paced, beautifully composed companion piece to YOJIMBO (Aug 10-11). Jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan’s evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a “proper” samurai on its ear. Less brazen in tone than its predecessor but equally entertaining, this classic character’s return is a masterpiece in its own right.
Programmers’ Note: On Tue, Aug 12, you can catch back-to-back screenings of YOJIMBO (2:15pm, 6:40pm) and SANJURO (4:35pm, 9:00pm) in our 1925 Hall. Tickets sold separately.
“Satirical samurai action of the highest order.” —Empire Magazine “Tongue in cheek though it is, SANJURO is made with all the fluid elegance of Kurosawa at the height of his powers, his scurrying swordsmen forming intricate visual patterns across the ’scope screen. And even at his most playful, Kurosawa has serious points to make about Japanese society and its overwhelming urge towards social conformity.” —Philip Kemp, Sight and Sound (BFI) "THE fans of Akira Kurosawa are due for an interesting surprise as they watch his new film, SANJURO…. So often have they been clobbered by the grand, violent, sword-swinging style of the Japanese director's samurai ‘Westerns’...that they're likely to find themselves waiting somewhat restively to be socked again as this latest display of a samurai hero glides along toward its middle and nothing explodes…. He has given us in SANJURO a surprising, fetching, beautifully made film that fitly propounds the lesson of his own professionalism: ‘Never send a boy to do a man's work.’” —Bosley Crowther, New York Times (May 8, 1963)
