“Rashomon”

Keith Harper, Jr
“Rashomon”
Language: Japanese
Release Date: Dec. 26, 1951
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Color: Black and white

Nominated Oscar - Best Art Direction, Won Blue Ribbon Award – Best Screenplay
“Rashomon” created the Rashomon effect which is perception by recollection. Like in the movie, all the characters have a different story and can be perceived by the viewer as reliable or unreliable. The choice to make the film black and white adds to the mystery of the murder and the instability of each witness.
Rashomon is a 1950 Japanese crime mystery film directed by Akira Kurosawa. It can be said to have introduced Kurosawa and Japanese cinema to Western audiences, albeit to a small and discerning number of theatres, and is considered one of his masterpieces. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and also received an Academy Honorary Award at the 24th Academy Awards.

Also visible in this film is the feminist view, as well as the formalist view. I think that maybe the film maker was trying to show how weird the treatment of women is in Japan. Formalist theories play more into production values such as lighting, sound, shots, etc. The use of the music which would almost fit into a western and the "first ever" shot of the sun in film was used for a specific purpose.
According to Rodger Ebert of RodgerEbert.com. The genius of "Rashomon" is that all of the flashbacks are both true and false. True, in that they present an accurate portrait of what each witness thinks happened. False, because as Kurosawa observes in his autobiography, "Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing."
According to thecityreview.com. The message of the film, therefore, would seem to be that truth is relative, fragile, fleeting and uncertain. In his review of the film, James Berardinelli noted that that movie "is not about culpability or innocence." "Instead, it focuses on something far more profound and thought-provoking: the inability of any one man to know the truth, no matter how clearly he thinks he sees things. Perspective distorts reality and makes the absolute truth unknowable.

Personally i did not like the movie to much. I thought it was far to long and the story line and plot were terrible. I felt it just dragged out and wasn't that interesting.I did not like them sticking to the same few scenes the entire movie. However i did enjoy the fight scenes.

work citied
rodgerebert.com
http://www.thecityreview.com/rashomon.html