The Outrage (1964)

[Il Buono]

I don't know if I mentioned the film before on the board.  Has anyone seen it?  It's a pretty violent, dark but also funny western made in 1964 starring Paul Newman as a Mexican bandit (!)  
I was just wondering if anyone knew if the director was influenced by Leone's Fistful of Dollars, which came out the same year of course.  If not, it might point to the fact Hollywood was also looking for different ways to tell western stories.

Though not a very good film, it has its moments and is worth a watch for Newman's performance (as a Mexican !).

[The Smoker]

Heres the influence



The Outrage is a remake of Rashomon.
The Magnificent Seven is a remake of Seven Samurai
Fistful Of Dollars is a remake of Yojimbo.

Only the last one was unofficial...  

[Il Buono]

Thanks for clearing that up, smoker.

[Nobody]

I recently caught this on TCM. Not bad really, but not even close to the greatness of Rashomon, which is one of my favourite films. Paul Newman as a mexican was ridiculous though.

[cigar joe]

About as ridiculous as Charelton Heston as a Mexican in Orson Wells' Touch of Evil 1958 which by the way is an outstanding film noir, its only fault being Heston. It has some great sequences, photography, camera angels that predated and reminded me a lot of Leone's style.

[redyred]

On the subject of western remakes of Kurosawa films, I think an excellent idea for a film would be a remake of a spaghetti set in feudal Japan. The best one I can think of to do that with would be Great Silence.

[Nobody]

Apart from Heston Touch Of Evil was terrific, I must agree. Don't really care much for Heston. I loathe him as a person, and I also think he is an overrated actor. Did anyone see him in The Order? Terrible.

[Belkin]

Have always found THE OUTRAGE a fascinating but flawed piece of work. Surreal in its setting and very Japanese as in a theatre form called, NOH.
Have you ever seen THRONE OF BLOOD, DIRECTED BY KUROSAWA. MMMMmmmm! Pure joy. If you don't find the ending one of cinema's most stunning, I'll eat my poncho!  
Throne of Blood

Original title: Kumonosu-jo
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshiro MIFUNE, Isuzu YAMADA, Takashi SHIMURA, Minoru CHIAKI
Running time: 109 mins.
Year: 1957

Akira Kurosawa's adaptation of Macbeth is not the most typical jidai-geki around, but it is one of the best. The tale of the paranoid warlord and his ambitious wife, whose lust for power ends up turning against them, is still as powerful as it ever was. Mifune is superb, his final descent in a hale of mutinous arrows a ballet of frantically skewed compositions. Yamada as his lady Macbeth is every bit his equal, projecting blind, malevolent ambition with hardly a move of either body or face. The third main presence in Throne of Blood is that of the fog. Hiding and revealing, guiding and misleading, it shapes fates and events, functioning as the film's one truly untouchable power. An essential film beyond any doubt.
With regards to MIDNIGHT EYE ROUND UP.

[Nobody]

Yea, Throne Of Blood is probably the best Shakespeare adaptation I've ever come across. Toshiro Mifune must be one the greatest actors that has ever lived.

[Belkin]

Yea, Throne Of Blood is probably the best Shakespeare adaptation I've ever come across. Toshiro Mifune must be one the greatest actors that has ever lived.

Mifune, an actors actor! He and LEE MARVIN are terrific in JOHN BOORMANS HELL IN THE PACIFIC (1968)! A flawed movie but the acting rocks!

[Dust Devil]

I found this thoroughly charming and well-acted. The intensity and quality of the stories varies, I think depending mostly on the viewer's preferences, but overall the wits are expressed in most near-point breaks, so balance this pretty well. Also, what I like, is when I see directors playing with what's happening on screen, not just, you know, ''directing''. Martin Ritt does a good job in setting atmospheric/dynamic subterfuge when the situation calls, and really, sometimes subterfuge isn't really subterfuge as often times life is life and not a movie, what the viewer himself often forgets, if you catch my drift. It can work in your favor if you know the right combination. Paul Newman as a Mexican? - Not very believable, no, but great to watch!



7/10

[Dust Devil]

Rashômon it is not.