Sanjuro’s Motive
Sanjuro, the protagonist of Yojimbo, is the quintessential cowboy of classic Westerns. He is a wanderer, drifting into defunct towns to help the helpless and defeat the unjust. His demeanor is stoic, seemingly asexual, pure and noble. Once the dynasty that held him in employment dissolved, he is left to exist on his own, and forge his own meaning. In most Westerns, or Western-esque flicks, the motivation of the main character coming to town and saving the day is clear. For money, for love, for revenge, you name it. So what is Sanjuro’s motive for intervening in the town divided by equal, opposing forces?It first appears that Sanjuro has simply found the perfect situation in which to make the most of his skills as a warrior and make a profit. After all of his playing hard to get, he gives the 30 ryo to the family of the woman held captive. He could have still been the hero without parting with his money. So money isn’t his motive.
Perhaps it’s to lead the rock ‘n roll lifestyle of a dangerous man that oozes machismo, drinking and womanizing until he grows bored and moves to the next town. While he drinks his fair share of sake, he doesn’t have women on the mind. He even seems indifferent to the opposite sex and maintains a pure and almost holy image. Could he just be bored and view the town as an opportunity to exercise his wit and his agility? It doesn’t appear that way. He doesn’t know anyone in the town, so he’s not personally invested in anything that happens.
Maybe it’s just me that finds action without motive suspect. It seems too good to be true, but I find Sanjuro to be a pro-bono mercenary for the meek. He’s a servant looking for a master, a defender looking for someone to defend. The character of Sanjuro is a very deliberate portrait of a pure hero. From the beginning of the film, viewers are conditioned to think of him as a giant of a person, fulfiller of mountains and broken towns. The light seems to find him in every shot, and he is a Christ figure, rising from the dead to finish his work. He is the ultimate gun-slinger (without the gun), with no discernible weakness, carefully spoken, Christ-like and virtuous. Long story short, he’s the man.
He is virtuous to a degree. He is still a killer, but it is interesting that in this hardboiled world he lives in the only things that separates him from the lawless fugitives in the town are his values. They all are killers, but he is able to rise above the others in the eyes of the viewers, because while he was originally only there for the money he finds himself by helping the family and symbolically through his resurrection in the graveyard. I love the use of black and white which in many ways provides a clearer delineation of good and evil than is provided in A Fistful of Dollars.
[...] Original post by cdame2of [...]
[...] CD’s Blog on Sanjuro’s motives is interesting in that I find I have come to a very different conclusion after watching the movie again. CD calls Sanjuro a pro-bono mercenary for the meek, a servant looking for a master. I think that he was indeed looking for a master and found it symbolically in a preservation of tradition. What makes Sanjuro the “man” as CD calls him. I think more than any other protagonist in this section he is redeemable and his motives are pure. Ned is so pessimistic that it almost grates on you, Tom ends up dejected and pretty much gives up, or at the very least has no clear purpose in life, Joe also does not have a convincing purpose like Sanjuro. Sanjuro is more than just a preserver of tradition, by his very nature he is a link between the past and the present. He is in one moment a Samurai soldier, and a ruthless mercenary. The film basically chronicles his decision as a Ronin, whether to fight for the past he has known or take the easy money as a mercenary. [...]
[...] Original post by cdame2of [...]