An existential movie question: by director or by remake?

[barondave]

Just added four pictures to my Netflix queue, and wondered if Live Journal Assembled had any thoughts, since I haven't seen any of these movies in decades. I've been on a Kurowsawa kick for a while now, and a long time ago decided to order Yojimbo with Toshiro Mifune and its sequel Sanjuro at the same time. Somewhat on a lark, I also ordered the spaghetti Western remakes, A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More, directed by Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood.

Now, the question is: In what order do I watch them. Current queue:
Yojimbo
Sanjuro
A Fist Full of Dollars
For A Few Dollars More

But I could easily see:
Yojimbo
A Fist Full of Dollars
Sanjuro
For A Few Dollars More

Comments?

Comments

[ericcoleman]

Go with the first order. At least I would ...

[mle292.livejournal.com]

If you're going to committ to one of those two options, go with the first one.

I would sugguest spacing out the movies a little more and watch something unrelated in between.

I don't dislike the Kurowsawa movies, but they're more the types of movies one would watch if one enjoys over-analyzing movies. The Sergio Leone movies can be analyzed too, but they're much more fun to watch. I want to say why, but I'd be running the risk of spoiling and I'm not sure how picky you are about such things.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I might space out the movies (I usually do), but given that they're two sequels and two remakes I might want to keep them fresh. I can only keep three Netflix movies at a time, and may very well just do them in pairs.

I felt much the same way you do about Kurosawa movies until I started getting the Netflix DVDs with commentary. The commentary helps a great deal for films of another culture and time, I've found. I'd previously only seen mainly his more well-known movies, eg Rashamon, Seven Samurai and Ran, which were enough to bring him up to one of my favorites but not quite in the top tier. But after Ichiru (plus commentary), which may be my second favorite movie of all time, and several others, he's way up there with Kubrick, Foremen, Murnau and...

Well, you get the picture. Yes, I'm one to analyze a movie... perhaps a bit more than your casual viewer, though others would say over analyze. Some movies are better constructed than others, and some deserve more analysis than others.

I like Leone, and Eastwood as a director is even better.

But I digress.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

I'd go with the second order if I was watching them in fairly close succession, in order to see how the directors handled the story differently. (I'd also throw in Last Man Standing to the first succession, but I'm a glutton for punishment that way.)

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I've never seen Last Man Standing (the Bruce Willis movie?), but the description sounds about right. I dunno... maybe later. For the moment, I'm still waffling on the order. Depends what kind of commentary A Fist Full of Dollars has... might be fun to compare commentaries as much as it will be to compare movies.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

Yep, the Bruce Willis movie. It's a thinly veiled retelling of Yojimbo.

[jerrykaufman.livejournal.com]

And Battle Beyond the Stars (John Sayles wrote the script) is a thinly disguised retelling of The Magnificent Seven, with Robert Vaughn in roughly the same role. (and both are retellings of The Seven Samurai....)

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Indeed. There are Seven Samurai tropes in many movies, eg Three Amigos. One could immerse onseself in the reverberations of the Kurosawa movie.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

For that matter, fan and movie expert (and contributor to Maltin's Guide) Bill Warren claims that "Gunga Din" is a remake of "The Front Page." I've heard his reasons, and dagnabbit, he's got a point.