A Month of Kurosawa: The Lower Depths (1957)

A Month of Kurosawa: The Lower Depths (1957)

Posted inFilms
To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer's Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield -- preorder here! -- I'll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! The Lower Depths (1957) Kurosawa's interest in exploring the plight of the underclasses did not end when his exploration of postwar Japan ended, nor did his interest in western literature ever wane. The Lower Depths, an adaption of the…
A Month of Kurosawa: Throne of Blood (1957)

A Month of Kurosawa: Throne of Blood (1957)

Posted inFilms
To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer's Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield -- preorder here! -- I'll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! Throne of Blood (1957) In the 1940s and 1950s, director Alfred Hitchcock went on one of the greatest creative tears in cinema history. Between 1940's Rebecca to 1960's Psycho, he directed anywhere from 10 to a dozen bona fide…
Driving: Is It Really Getting Safer?

Driving: Is It Really Getting Safer?

Posted inContributed Posts
Contributed Posts Over the years, drivers have gotten used to improvements in safety. The very first cars didn’t even have seatbelts, but then things started to change, and people began demanding to be safer on the road. By the time the 1990s rolled around, cars already had a plethora of safety equipment on board, including, importantly, driver and passenger airbags. But despite these well-publicised improvements, more than 40,000 people were still dying on America’s roads every year. So what’s made the difference in safety over the years? Steel is one obvious example. Although steel has been in mass production for…
A Month of Kurosawa: I Live in Fear (1955)

A Month of Kurosawa: I Live in Fear (1955)

Posted inFilms
To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer's Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield -- preorder here! -- I'll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! I Live in Fear (1955) aka Record of a Living Being How do you follow one of the greatest epics of all time, Seven Samurai? You don't. Or rather, you try something completely different. Following the gigantic undertaking that…
A Month of Kurosawa: Seven Samurai (1954)

A Month of Kurosawa: Seven Samurai (1954)

Posted inFilms
To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer's Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield -- preorder here! -- I'll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! Seven Samurai (1954) I have a weakness for epics. When I see that a movie has an absurdly long run time, I find myself instantly intrigued. I'm not sure why. It's not as if run time is a sign…