“Yojimbo reeks of cheesy, machismo in a way that suggests that men are just all brawn.  Kurasawa must have gone out and killed lots of big game and then shined his sword (phallus) afterward.  The film gushes with archetypes of virility such as weapons, killing and and boozing.  In fact, these things define Yojimbo (can’t remember his name) as they did Ed/Ned in “The Glass Key.”  I’m not advocating killing and violence as ways to pass one’s time, however a little drinking and skirt-chasing are generally viewed as harmless male past times.   “Yojimbo” and “The Glass Key” successfully re-enforce these attitudes.  I think it is remarkable that they were made on two different continents, portraying two completely different cultures, and yet their main characters could have shared an embryonic sac. 

Environment plays an important role in both movies.  In “Key” the indoor environment figures prominently, i.e. the sometimes lavish furnishings and decor.  In “Yojimbo” the environment is the actual physical landscape.  It reminds me of a Clint Eastwood western.  Though I digress.  The desolate, windy, sandy town portrays an atomosphere of doom.  It leaves the people who inhabit it with nothing.  At any moment I expected to see a giant tumbleweed blow across the screen and carry away one of the geishas.  As lavish as the environs of the “Key” were, so was the rusticity of “Yojimbo.”  Yet, despite their obvious differences, the two films proved that boys will be boys.  Ed/Ned may be the coolest, suavest dude he could have been, while Yojimbo was definitely a male bimbo.