> Dick Lochte wrote:
>
> Read the Hammett article, and noticed that it
repeated as fact, a claim I've
> seen at times in discussions here, namely that
Kurosawa got his idea for
> Yojimbo
> from Red Harvest.
>
> I do see some similarities, but I sure see some big
differences too. Who
> of the Kurosawa or Hammett biographers has made this
claim and what basis
> did he
> or she give? I'd like something more substantial
than similarities......
>
>
> Bill Hagen
>
> 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. ........ To my mind, the similarities
are
> substantial enough to justify the claim.
> Dick Lochte
>
Dear Dick and Bill,
I recently made the same claim that Red Harvest & Yojimbo
were very similar; I think I stopped at saying Kurosowa was
influenced by Hammett in that post to RARA-AVIS. (might not
have gotten through--software problems).
The rogue Samurai, Ronin, who plays one faction off of
another, is a traditional theme in Japanese popular fiction
and swordsman ship mythology. See my reference to "Musashi"
(in the "missing?" post) the film that won the 1955 Academy
Award for Best Foreign Film--not by Kurosawa, but starring a
very young Toshiro Mifune. "Musashi" is also the title of an
epic novel in 5 books written by of Japan's most popular
author's between 1932 or so to 1940, I believe--classic hard
boiled American pulp period. Finally Musashi is a real person
who wrote the most famous Japanese book on strategy, The Book
of Five Rings. He is Ja[an's greatest Samurai swordsman from
the classic 1600's on Shogunate introduced by Clavell.
Musashi's biography could make a great hard boiled tale set
in a foreign land.
Bruce Willis starred a few years ago in a film, title escapes
me (Last Man Standing?), that is very dependent on Red
Harvest/Yojimbo. Producers--for obvious reasons---say it had
nothing to do with Hammett's story, the rights to which were
(at minimum film rights) sold some years back to, I believe,
an Italian producer.
A friend I met through my Hollywood Agent, when I had a
Hollywood agent, :Larry Bishop (director of a recent offbeat
hard boiled film and son of Joey "rat pack" Bishop) was
writing scripts of Red Harvest over and over again for the
producer whose name escapes me. I read the scripts and they
were good.
In any case, for a variety of rights reason's, film people
are hesitant to give acknowledgment to influences. As I
mentioned before, in the post that may not have gotten
through, George Lucas has stated that Kurosawa's Castle of
Blood was the primary inspiration for the first Star Wars
film.
Of course it is one thing to see the similarities (and
differences) in works of art, but quite a different matter to
claim a direct influence (this problem occurs all the time in
infringement litigation.).
So I have to disagree with Bill's reasoning and side with
Dick Lochte's analytic model for establishing
influences.
Even if a biographer or historian mentioned he knew Kurosawa
was influenced by Hammett's Red Harvest in Yojimbo (and I
seem to recall reading that somewhere) it is another matter
to provide documentary evidence. For instance, Chandler wrote
that he practiced writing an Erle Stanley Gardner Black Mask
story from memory as a warm up lesson on how to write for
Black Mask. I could look up the reference and the name of the
story he used. I think it is in Dr. Frank MacShane's
authorized biography of Chandler.
Keith
keithdeutsch@earthlink.net
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