I really struggled to get through this. My roommate described this as "one of the best Samurai movies of all time." This site, which aligns more with my opinion than any other review site, also rates it extremely high. For the life of me, I can't figure out why. My best guess is that because it is iconic and has been copied so much, everyone reviewing it wants to feel in the loop.
There is very little action in this movie. I think Yojimbo does less than 30 seconds of fighting the whole movie. Also hard to view him as the protagonist when he clearly exploits everyone for his own gain the whole time. I didn't feel that him letting a few people go at the end justified the havoc he wrought on the whole town.
The pace is SO slow that I kept "waiting for it to start." The acting is so over the top from everyone except the main character. You know when you're watching a great movie but then some side character pulls you back to reality with some horrible delivery? That was most of this movie. The dialogue was some of the worst I've seen too.
I'm going to have to watch this again because I'm convinced I've missed some genius here but...it was such a struggle the first time, I don't know if I could make it through again. It did have some unique shots, decent music, and an unusual storyline which I know is what put it on the map in the first place. It's just that the actual content was so subpar, I couldn't invest myself in the film. Maybe when this movie was made, it was groundbreaking. But since then we've substantially raised the bar on movie quality and this one doesn't stand the test of time.
I'll revisit this review after a second watch. Gonna need some Xanax to make it though.
There is very little action in this movie. I think Yojimbo does less than 30 seconds of fighting the whole movie. Also hard to view him as the protagonist when he clearly exploits everyone for his own gain the whole time. I didn't feel that him letting a few people go at the end justified the havoc he wrought on the whole town.
The pace is SO slow that I kept "waiting for it to start." The acting is so over the top from everyone except the main character. You know when you're watching a great movie but then some side character pulls you back to reality with some horrible delivery? That was most of this movie. The dialogue was some of the worst I've seen too.
I'm going to have to watch this again because I'm convinced I've missed some genius here but...it was such a struggle the first time, I don't know if I could make it through again. It did have some unique shots, decent music, and an unusual storyline which I know is what put it on the map in the first place. It's just that the actual content was so subpar, I couldn't invest myself in the film. Maybe when this movie was made, it was groundbreaking. But since then we've substantially raised the bar on movie quality and this one doesn't stand the test of time.
I'll revisit this review after a second watch. Gonna need some Xanax to make it though.