Jim Groom – Film/Text/Culture Autoblog -Summer 07

Yojimbo and Star Wars

Jim Groom — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:45:30 +0000

Alright, I’m promising myself this is the last video clip I’ll post. It’s just that when we were talking about the similarities between the arm-chopping scenes in Yojimbo and Star Wars, this clip is the first thing that popped into my head. It’s too funny not to post.
Seriously. Watch it.

For those who found it funny, there’s a whole slew of other ones like it here.

Original post by crain2mn

Yojimbo’s Style of Humor

Jim Groom — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:18:57 +0000

As I watched Yojimbo the other day, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had seen its style of humor somewhere before. It wasn’t until I was driving home after class that it hit me: it’s the exact same style of humor as is in the movie Army of Darkness.
What’s interesting about this style of humor is that it is more than just scene after scene of severed limbs and pools of blood. Like most films, they both feature a core-group of characters that the viewer is supposed to care about. Were this not the case, there would be no one (save perhaps the protagonist) with whom the audience could really connect.
In both films, the ability to elicit a humorous response from the violence hinges on the director’s ability to convince the audience that those being killed are utterly devoid of value.
In Yojimbo this is accomplished by depicting […]

Original post by crain2mn

Sherlock Holmes, Ned Beaumont, and Dr. Gregory House

Jim Groom — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 02:50:02 +0000

After today’s class I naturally ran back home and checked out IMDB for some references of film noir. I never really got anything too good, but then I got to thinking of current pop culture references to 50’s-detective-sherlock-holmesy type icons (whew!) and came to a sort of obvious conclusion:
Dr. Gregory House from House, MD.
Ok, before everyone logs away from this page hear me out:
He solves cases (ok…, medical ones), he has a crutch of a gimp leg (and a general sour demeanor because of it), and actually… the character is (according to creator David Shore) based off of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes, in turn, was actually (according to author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) based on a doctor he knew while studying medicine, a Dr. Bell, whose specialty was diagnosis, similar to Houses’. Couldn’t help but post that fun trivia, sorry if that made everyones head spin.
Anyway, here is short video (about […]

Original post by elizabethomas

Toshiro Mifune

Jim Groom — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:23:27 +0000

Watching “Yojimbo” for the first time gave me the chance to witness, in my opinion, one of the finest actors of any generation; and for that I am grateful. This class forces us to strip down films, and analyze parts of it that wouldn’t normally be obvious to the average film buff. I have to say, that it was very difficult to do so for me, simply because I sat fixated on the acting of Toshiro Mifune. It’s funny how more often than not we are so inclined to dub a performance a “great acting performance.” However, after seeing Mifune’s portrayal of Sanjuro, other performances, which I once thought “great” seem average in comparison. A simple facial expression by Mifune can convey so much emotion…(or a lack of emotion for that matter). I think that when Dr. Campbell said that by watching a movie without the sound, you can notice so much […]

Original post by ellie

A little Yojimbo action

Jim Groom — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:07:15 +0000

Alright then, so I said I have more to say about The Glass Key. And I do, but, I forgot it. Maybe it’ll come back to me? Probably not, but I’ll leave the possibility open. For now I want to talk about Yojimbo.
I found the movie to be very interesting. I wanted to first talk about the opening shot with the mountains. Before we went back over it in class, I did notice how Sanjuro seemed to be as big, if not bigger, than the mountains during my first viewing. The things that were uncovered with a further look, though, brought so much more meaning to that shot. The same with the town shot, how the buildings were almost looming over him when he entered it. It got me thinking.
[…]

Original post by malbrooks

The Purpose of Writing At All

Jim Groom — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 01:57:46 +0000

I had a really cool moment in class today during our discussion of where Dashiell Hammett (if I spelled that wrong, a thousand apologies) fits in on the scale of literary modernism, the two ends being Virginia Woolf’s theory that literature should be a window into the conscious mind and Joseph Conrad’s idea that it should be “something something justice to the visible world.” The consensus was that our present author definitely fits more on the Conradian side of the equation, due to his almost obsessive preoccupation with not letting us into the minds of his characters and even going so far as to create a kind of unreliable narrator situation where we weren’t even sure if the surface information we were getting was right. Talk about confusing. I, of course, loved this. Even though pretty much every English teacher I’ve ever had persists in telling me that authorial intent […]

Original post by anniek

On Memes…

Jim Groom — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 01:54:51 +0000

Here are some memes I found online. Enjoy.

Original post by anniek

Yojimbo

Jim Groom — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 22:54:25 +0000

My favorite aspect of this movie would have to be the comedy laced in. Being a comedy fan, of course this is what I picked out. Everything from the little timeteller man shuffling around, to the huge hulking giant carrying a big mallet, to the mama’s boy who mama doesn’t really like, they were my favorite characters. Who doesn’t love a little humor every now and then?
On to some serious stuff I learned today. I would like to point out that the scene where Sanjuro is being beaten up is pretty much exactly the same scene in The Glass Keywhere Ned Beaumont is beaten up, including the two cronies sitting playing a game and the main character’s cunning escape. This must be Heisler’s “tip of the hat,” just like George Lucas’ in Star Wars that we discussed today (which really made me want to see those movies again).
Why do directors […]

Original post by khusband

The Glass Key

Jim Groom — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 15:17:47 +0000

The Glass Key – the movie and the book. I can honestly say I enjoyed both versions—which is not always the case with books and its adaptations. Coughbloodwork.
In class one of the first things we talked about was the hard boiled detective vs. the Sherlock Holmes-esque detective style. It became fairly clear that Ned Beaumont was not much like Sherlock, and I think that might be one of the reasons I found the book to be so interesting. Putting my knowledge of the movie completely aside, when I was reading the book, I don’t ever think I had that feeling in the back of my mind that Ned Beaumont would definitely solve the crime. His gambling addiction, coupled with a few other characteristics I witnessed about him, always left me with a slight sense of “wow, maybe he won’t be able to do it.” I don’t think that element […]

Original post by malbrooks

Hairstyles Cont.

Jim Groom — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:45:40 +0000

Original post by ellie