TheGildedGoose wrote: ↑1 year ago
Can someone help me find the goalposts, please?
"Awesome" is a pretty subjective evaluation so I'm quite excited to see how you objectively grade
that opinion.
The entire original premise of my bit is that A Fistful of Dollars was an unauthorized remake of Yojimbo. That's it. Yojimbo isn't even close to being the best Kurosawa movie, but given your latest takes, I would be loath to recommend anything.
Maybe Ran? If you're going to crib, you can do worse than Billy Shakes. @TheAmericanSpirit: What's your fave? I'm partial to Throne of Blood.
Anyway, a movie can be both historically significant and be a compelling watch. If you can't leave behind your modern and distinctly American tastes behind, well, it's your loss.
Fun fact: The Truman Show was filmed a stone's throw away from my home town.
Wait, what? I'm not sure how you think I'm moved the goalposts - I think I've been pretty consistent in saying that, while there might be historical reasons that Yojimbo is significant, by today's standards I find it to be a weak movie in a number of aspects, and that I find fangirling about it in 2023 to be incomprehensible from anyone who isn't at least as old as my dad - but then you claim that your original point was something you never said? It's relatively common knowledge that Fistful is an unauthorized remake of Yojimbo - that's just a fact, and I would never have bothered arguing it - but nothing in what you've said even implies that was your point. Saying the main character "wore it better" implies a statement about the quality of that character and/or film, not about one copying the other. If someone said "Dune 1984 wore it better than Dune 2021" would you interpret that as "Dune 2021 is a remake of Dune 1984"? Or would you interpret that as "Dune 1984 > Dune 2021"? (I could have sworn there were better examples of remakes that improved on the original but I can't find them offhand). Keep your own goalposts in check, tyvm.
I haven't rewatched Fistful since I was a kid, so I have no idea if that holds up as well as GBU - it may well not, which would explain why GBU is the one that has stood the test of time in popular culture. I think I've found it on Youtube but it's broken into clips and stapled together. Few Dollars More seems to be fully available like GBU. If anyone is curious. Afaik GBU is not a remake of anything.
Don't even come at me with that "you're too American" crap. I don't even live in America
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/5-wink-fb.png)
Lily and I are currently watching an Icelandic Netflix show (trapped) and loving it (2/2 on Icelandic Netflix shows - Katla was even better). Other solid Netflix watches recently have been 1899 (%$#% ending though) (German), Alice in Borderland (Japanese), Cunk on Earth (British), Exception (Japan), Glitch (%$#% ending though) (Australian), Squid Game (South Korea), Hellbound (South Korea)...okay at this point it's starting to feel very "I have a black friend" but idk how else to prove that I enjoy plenty of foreign cinema.
I'll happily admit to preferring modern cinema though. Modern things aren't default better, obviously, but it makes sense that, as we learn, we're capable of creating better and better things. Anybody think a 1985 Macintosh "holds up"? Anybody want to travel by horse and buggy? Anyone want to eat burnt rat? If Kurosawa had been born in 1980 and was directing movies now, I'm sure they'd be a hell of a lot more compelling than Yojimbo since they'd be built on a much greater depth of collective experience that didn't exist in 1961. When a movie does hold up as long as, I would argue, GBU, it's a bit of a miracle. Yojimbo has not accomplished that miracle imo.