Hiroshi Inagake’s three-film adaptation of Eiji Yoshikawa’s epic novel embraces the mythic dimensions with a removed, distant style that elevates the character to tragic hero.
Tag: 1954
‘Vera Cruz’ – The proto-spaghetti western on Amazon Prime
“You’re the first friend I ever had,” grins flamboyant mercenary Burt Lancaster to lean, laconic Gary Cooper in with a smile that suggests that he may be the last. They’re a pair of Americans abroad looking to cash in the Mexican revolution by selling their services to the highest bidder in Vera Cruz (1954), Robert […]
‘Riot in Cell Block 11’ on Criterion Channel
It may not have been obvious at the time but Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) was a perfect match of film and filmmaker. Don Siegel later made a name for himself with his gritty Clint Eastwood collaborations (not to mention his brilliant Invasion of the Body Snatchers) but was just a promising journeyman director […]
Luis Buñuel’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’ on Amazon Prime
Luis Buñuel is best known for his witty, surreal comedies that satirized society, religion, politics, and sexual mores in the 1960s and 1970s, but he had a long career before his breakthrough as an internationally celebrated satirist. Robinson Crusoe (1954), his first English language movie and his first color feature, was produced not as a […]