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Yojimbo was such a good movie.  Toshiro Mifune is probably my favorite actor.  It seems to me, in my unschooled opinion, that some of the best face actors come from Japan.  They are great at expressing themselves through looks and through voice.  Subtitiles are almost a formality during certain scenes.  And Kurosawa, he takes some interesting shots.  I can’t quite figure out how to put my pictures in here, because I’m a Luddite and not quite willing to figure it out. I’ve uploaded some of Ben’s pictures, but can’t seem to get them up here.  I’ll ask him on Wednesday. 

 More about Yojimbo.  As Mary-Carolyn says, it is hardboiled without really being a detective novel.  Compared to The Glass Key,  there is no Janet, no Henrys at all.  Sanjuro kills everyone who dies- and kills almost everyone. 

I’ve seen A Fistfull of Dollars  and really, Leone jacks it all from Kurosawa.  Only, Eastwood’s Man With No Name uses fire to break out of captivity, like Ned Beaumont.  So maybe Hammett influences them both beyond the obvious Kurosawa influence in Leone’s film. 

 A word on the music in Yojimbo.  Wasn’t it awesome?  Trumpets and thumpy drums.  Minimalist, yet effective.  Mr. Tarentino really steals everything he’s got, even the trumpets and drums.  Not to mention the samurai swords.  If you made Sanjuro a tall blonde woman, and made Yojimbo into an exploitation film, you’d get something like Kill Bill but far less violent. And better shot, too.  Sorry, Robyn, I’ll take my authentic samurai any day. 

Tired, better go get some other work done.  Goonight goonight.

Ok, this movie is done but i’m still not quite finished.  I’m not sure about bloggin’ either, this is my first one and i can’t decide what’s the proper captialization policy. is it more a paper, or more an e-mail?  Sometimes, I write like the blog is formal.  Other times, i write like i write to my friends.  haven’t decided.  bear with me for now, please. 

 Alright, to the film.  The best part had to be the part at the end with Jeff and Ed in Jeff’s room.  All of a sudden, there was acting!  Well, for Jeff at least.  He played the part so ridiculously well, his character suddenly came to life like some frankenkingkong.  Bendix’ face moved from and angry drunken lout to a mask from a Greek tragedy and back, glorious.  What a guy, Jeff.  Only in Jeff did we get to see some of Hammett’s Freudian, psychological themes coming out.  Sorry, sorry.  He is so obsessed with Ed, like someone else was saying, (I don’t know how to link yet, it was on the blog “The Woman Who Could Handle Them All”), Ed dominates everyone.   Jeff might just want as good a friend as Paul, might be jealous… or it might be something more primal.  His homoerotic and sadistic attraction to Ed makes him the only tormented character in the story.  Ed just uses him.  It’s hard when the story isn’t in the main characters.  I’d like to see Jeff the Goon or something.  That said, I find that the homoerotic and sadistic are unfairly paired in many characters in literature and film.  Just those old morals still hanging around, but it is exhausting.  My friend is about to show up here in the ol’ Bushnell, so I’ll wrap this for now, and maybe add some technical observations later.  Another real question remains: Why is eveyone obsessed with Alan Ladd’s Ed?  He’s boring.  It would take a heck of an actor to do the part justice, someone with real charisma.  It doesn’t make sense that everyone is crazy about such a stonefaced, bland character.

Ned is Ed but Ed isn’t quite Ned in this movie.  I miss my old Ned.  This one is a little too cool without being so brutal.  His gambling isn’t as important, and he definately had a different thought process when he found that razor in the bathroom.  In the book, Ned’s first idea is to kill himself, cutting his throat with the rusted blade.  In the film, Ed finds the razor and, suddenly, thinks to go get his lighter out of his coat pocket.  Ed is just a little bit too clever.

 Scenes are out of order.  It is a much more straightforward mystery.  Paul is crazier, more unbalanced. 

 One part I did like was the toothbrushing scene.  Brian Donlevy plays Paul Madvig very well, if  a little differently.  I don’t know, I feel like the movie is more noir than the book.  Which is why they call it film noir, I guess.  It is very caught up in its noiress, its noirocity.  The book was bigger than the overcoats and cigarettes. 

Jeff is pretty funny, eh?  And Nick is Shad.  Looking forwards to finishing and then I’ll say more. 

The Glass Key is one badass little novel, in both its story and its style.  No wonder they call it hardboiled.  there are really several layers of detective story going on, the actual mystery of Taylor’s death and the deeper mystery of Ned Beaumont’s character.  As readers, we find ourselves with Janet, trying to understand this brutal man.  Personally, I think Ned Beaumont wouldn’t have left Paul for a fling.  Like Dr. Campbell said in class, sure they challenge and riddle and mess with each other, but perhaps that is love. 

I think this book could be read as murder mystery or a mystery of identity.  The murder may be solved by the end, but we are only given a pile of contradictory clues as to who Ned Beaumont really is.  I’ll have to read it again someday and pay extra attention to the second mystery instead of getting caught up in the first. 

i almost, almost did an apostrophe instead.  but a period is rounder.  an O would have done nearly as well. o o o that shakespeherian rag…  only, you can pronounce an o. i don’t know, if it gets to be a pain in the ass trying to click on a period i’ll change it.  just a cheezy little minimal thing.  it’s just, when i’m trying to figure out what to name writing that hasn’t been written yet, it is impossible to use a word.  so . for now.  maybe i should have made it an ellipsis… but they have so much character, i don’t know if i’d be able to live up to an ellipsis.     .     it’s almost nothing.   i like it.