Re: RARA-AVIS: RE: Hammett and Kurosawa

From: Anthony Dauer ( anthony.dauer@erols.com)
Date: 19 Apr 2000


Let's see ... what are those sayings? There's nothing new under the sun ... everything's been written. Having commonalties between the plots of two stories is hardly proof that the author was copying the other ... at least intentionally. Without any other evidence I don't see where you have a choice other than to believe the parties involved. Like Sherlock used to say, eliminate the impossible ... coming up with the same story that someone else has already told is not impossible. I know from personal experience that that is true. All you did was make an assumption, you have no proof.

Dick Lochte wrote:

> I'm not sure who, if any, of the Hammett biographers made the claim.
> Kurosawa denied the Hammett connection, just as Leone denied that "Fistful
> of Dollars" was inspired by "Yojimbo." But the films' plots speak for
> themselves. This is not to say that Kurosawa was stonewalling. Quite often
> in the course of making a movie the question of who-contributed-what is
> impossible to recall. Had he or his co-writer Ryuzo Kikushima read Hammett
> decades before? Had they seen a review or synopsis of the plot of "Red
> Harvest" or overheard someone describing the setup?" For whatever reason,
> the 1961 movie has a story outline that very closely resembles a fiction
> work that had been available since 1927. To my mind, the similarities are
> substantial enough to justify the claim.

--
volente Deo,

Anthony Dauer Alexandria, Virginia
Practice random acts of Xeroxing!

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