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The Quiet Duel
Hello again MoFos! It is another edition of At the Theater with The Gunslinger 45. Okay not so much the theater again… but this time we mark a very special occasion. The end of a viewing era, as I have finally completed Akira Kurosawa’s feature filmography. Over three years ago I first decided to seriously dip my toes into international cinema with a little film called Seven Samurai. A film that has gone on to become one of my top 10 favorite films of all time. This also started a deep love affair with the Japanese Golden Age, and opened the doors of foreign cinema beyond Godzilla titles. And I will celebrate this occasion by doing three mini reviews of the final three films of his that I saw and will post my ratings of all of his work. So let us dive into The Quiet Duel, The Idiot, and Dersu Uzala.
This is the final film of Kurosawa’s I saw that had the great Toshiro Mifune in the lead (but not the final film with him in it). This 1949 film has a very young Toshiro playing a surgeon in an Army hospital during World War II. During an operation he cuts his finger while performing an operation to save a young soldiers life. Unfortunately the soldier is infected with syphilis. At the time of this film, syphilis was practically incurable in Japan, and treatment took many years to clear up. So the problem facing the young doctor arises as he finally returns home to a waiting fiancée. Needless to say hard decisions and harder conversations have to be made upon returning home.
The circumstances surrounding the doctor’s infection while certainly negligent on his part, do not warrant the events to follow. The reveal of the sickness to his father (played by Takashi Shimura) was hard, his interactions with his future wife are harder, but his other challenge is with the young soldier who infected him. Lo and behold that jackass shows up in town, and not only has not sought treatment but has gotten himself married and his wife is pregnant. The young doctor must struggle with his disease, his upcoming marriage, as well as trying to keep his sickness a secret. What surprises me about this film is how good it is, and yet it does not have a Criterion release. And if you look at his filmography, most of his films are released through the Criterion Collection. From his earliest films to his final film, Madadayo. Yet this film was left out? I honestly do not get it. This is a criminally underrated film from one of the great masters of cinema.
The Quiet Duel
Hello again MoFos! It is another edition of At the Theater with The Gunslinger 45. Okay not so much the theater again… but this time we mark a very special occasion. The end of a viewing era, as I have finally completed Akira Kurosawa’s feature filmography. Over three years ago I first decided to seriously dip my toes into international cinema with a little film called Seven Samurai. A film that has gone on to become one of my top 10 favorite films of all time. This also started a deep love affair with the Japanese Golden Age, and opened the doors of foreign cinema beyond Godzilla titles. And I will celebrate this occasion by doing three mini reviews of the final three films of his that I saw and will post my ratings of all of his work. So let us dive into The Quiet Duel, The Idiot, and Dersu Uzala.
This is the final film of Kurosawa’s I saw that had the great Toshiro Mifune in the lead (but not the final film with him in it). This 1949 film has a very young Toshiro playing a surgeon in an Army hospital during World War II. During an operation he cuts his finger while performing an operation to save a young soldiers life. Unfortunately the soldier is infected with syphilis. At the time of this film, syphilis was practically incurable in Japan, and treatment took many years to clear up. So the problem facing the young doctor arises as he finally returns home to a waiting fiancée. Needless to say hard decisions and harder conversations have to be made upon returning home.
The circumstances surrounding the doctor’s infection while certainly negligent on his part, do not warrant the events to follow. The reveal of the sickness to his father (played by Takashi Shimura) was hard, his interactions with his future wife are harder, but his other challenge is with the young soldier who infected him. Lo and behold that jackass shows up in town, and not only has not sought treatment but has gotten himself married and his wife is pregnant. The young doctor must struggle with his disease, his upcoming marriage, as well as trying to keep his sickness a secret. What surprises me about this film is how good it is, and yet it does not have a Criterion release. And if you look at his filmography, most of his films are released through the Criterion Collection. From his earliest films to his final film, Madadayo. Yet this film was left out? I honestly do not get it. This is a criminally underrated film from one of the great masters of cinema.