> I'm currently reading the new edition of The Samurai
Film by Alain
> Silver (who has also written and/or edited numerous
books on film noir).
> Here's what he says about the above
question:
>
> It has been asserted, initially by David Desser and
freqently since the
> release of Last Man Standing in 1996, that Yojimbo
is an uncredited
> adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's1928 novel Red
Harvest. The fact that
> Walter Hill was one of several directors to attempt
an adaptation of the
> Hammett novel long before acquiring the rights to
remake Yojimbo has
> muddied the waters. While there is a narrative
resemblance between the
> Kurosawa and Hammett works in that a main character
plays two corrupt
> factions against each other, there is not much else
to connect them.
> Plot points cross-over from fiction and between
films and one
> writer/director may inspire another -- for example
the plot point of a
> police detective who loses his gun drives both
Kurosawa's Stray Dog and
> Walter Hill's 48 Hours, butbthat hardly makes one an
uncredited
> adaptation of the other.
That's exactly my take. Having studied Kurosawa's life and
career with great thoroughness over the years, and being no
stranger either to Hammett's work or, for that matter, Walter
Hill's, I've never felt that there was anything more
connecting the two works than a mere plot device. They don't
seem related beyond that to me at all, and I can find nothing
in Kurosawa's work or writings or interviews even to suggest
a direct connection.
Jim Beaver
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