I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
Yojimbo is definitely one of those movies, it seems, that gathers together a large group of kids together in every generation to sing of its praises (arguably Seven Samurai is more cult-ish, but this will do), much like The Boondock Saints & just about any Quentin Tarantino film (though it’s not cool to like Pulp Fiction anymore as much as it used to be, the much bigger rage is Resevoir Dogs as it were). I may just be unusually interested in the way hype is generated in pop culture, but I’m gonna go out on a limb here & say it’s the violence…? I don’t know, I like me some good hyped movies too (I didn’t not enjoy The Usual Suspects, & even Yojimbo was very good in it’s own right), but it’s much more interesting to just sit back & watch how excited the youth get in front a violent flick. & Yojimbo wasn’t even bloody! It was hardly even action-packed. Look, I’m not saying this made it a worse movie, I’m just analyzing how something gets to have such a large fanbase…it might be the “foreignness” of it. Cos ever since Amelie came out, it was cool to like subtitled movies again, & if it’s Asian-imported? Oh man, that is a recipe for success over here for young American hearts, I suppose.
For my own two cents, I do think Yojimbo was wonderfully made, especially the shots we looked at in class – the escape, the man & wife discussing politics – & the various click-clacking mechanisms was something I hadn’t thought of before. I applaud the film, like that it wasn’t Hollywood-drenched, & might try to find some way to pick up the music from it…even if I have to boot it myself.