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| Toshiro Mifune, Yuzo Kazama, Yoshio Tsuchiya,
Reiko Dan |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
4.0 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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'He
is a great doctor... No, a great man.'
A
young, ambitious doctor in 19th-Century Japan is assigned to a lowly
clinic run by an eccentric older doctor.
 As
impeccable as Akira Kurosawa's reputation remains among critics, film
students and movie lovers all over the world, he is still best known
for his more action-packed 'samurai' movies set in medieval Japan. Seven
Samurai, Yojimbo, Kagemusha, The Hidden Fortress,
even his amazing Shakespeare adaptations Throne of Blood and
Ran are driven by the visceral energy of their tautly developed
narratives, interspersed by action-packed setpieces. The more restful,
philosophical films that he also made have a tendency to be overlooked
by audiences and underestimated by critics, as if a master of action
cinema should know better than to try and develop an intimate, character-based
drama. Red Beard has been dismissed with terms like ' sentimental',
'overdrawn' and even 'Japanese soap opera', making this film ripe for
a critical re-appraisal.
A far more ambitious, probing piece of cinema than most of his better-known
films, Red Beard requires more effort from the part of the audience,
and will take most Western viewers a few sittings to fully appreciate
its deceptively simple structure and its underlying message. Far from
being sentimental, the film reveal a largely negative image of the world,
in which the abundance of human suffering ends up opening the eyes of
self-centered cynic, and reveals the gruff, inlikeable 'Red Beard' as
a flawed but convincingly heroic spirit. Having shown off his mastery
of the black-and-white widescreen frame with action comedies like Yojimbo
and Sanjuro, Kurosawa here reveals the extent of his technical
mastery by putting his peerless eye for staging to use in the far more
subtle, demanding realm of potent adult drama. He builds the keenly
constructed episodic narrative into an emotional climax that grows with
each viewing, while Mifune brings a heartbreaking subtlety to his last
Kurosawa film performance. A subtle, perceptive masterpiece that demands
closer inspection. |
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Only
available as a Region 1 release from the Criterion Collection.
The
anamorphic widescreen image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx.
2.35:1. This nicely restored presentation is nothing short of asonishing
in its level of detail and its excellent use of high-contrast black-and-white
cinematography. Textures and backgrounds are gorgeously rendered from
a near-spotless source print with deep blacks and a wide range of greys.
The Dolby
Digital 4.0 sound mix recreates the original release's surround
mix for the first time in many years. Dialogues and most sound effects
are anchored firmly in the center channel, while the discreet left,
right and single rear channel bring forth the nicely melodic orchestral
score, which surges forth on occasion with highly dramatic effects.
The original elements are clearly limited in their fidelity and dynamic
range, and this is of course nothing like a contemporary discreet surround
mix. But it's still an excellent presentation that provides a solid,
authentic audio mix.
The
audio commentary on the Criterion release of Kurosawa's masterpiece
Seven Samurai is perhaps the greatest one ever recorded. And
although Japanese film scholar Stephen Prince's well-informed, meticulously
prepared audio commentary for Red Beard doesn't quite
scale the same giddy, breathless heights, it's still an outstanding
effort that adds enormously to one's understanding and appreciation
of one of Kurosawa's slightly less accessible pictures. Prince sounds
a little nervous as he starts off, also giving the impression that he
is reading aloud from a piece of paper, but he slowly but surely gets
into it, and develops a fascinating, coherent discussion of Kurosawa's
style, technique, themes and history while still offering many screen-specific
comments. Red Beard is a film that's easy to underestimate, and
this commentary is a terrific introduction to the film's many hidden
treasures. The only other extra on the disc is the theatrical trailer,
that promotes Kurosawa more than it does this specific film. But as
with many other recent Criterion releases, more added value can be found
in the exquisitely designed booklet, where a highly interesting excerpt
from Donald Richie's recommended book The Films of Akira Kurosawa
adds some more insight.The
menu screens incorporate some subtle animation and animated transitions,
accompanied by a music cue from the score.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: July
29, 2002
Click
here for IMDB info on Red
Beard .
Click here
to return to the front page.
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