Auteur - Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa was a man that had changed the film industry from his some 50 plus years of work.  He was prolific in making something of 30 or so films in his lifetime.  He shows his auteurship well and deserves the title of being an auteur.  By watching the films Drunken Angel, Ikiru, and Yojimbo, I could see Akira's perspective on how he showed his auteurship in film through different themes and subjects.  He had a common theme of having a noir motif throughout his films and having his characters take a stand by themselves.

    Within the movie Drunken Angel, we see an unusual friendship form between a doctor and a thug that he chooses to help after a gunfight.   This was Akira's breakthrough film and it shows.  The story is realistic and gritty in which he could express himself freely.  The 2 main characters interact well and produce the story with precision and realness.  Though, the thug, Matsunaga ends up being the big attraction to the movie.  He was a compelling character that showed the side of the yakuza and how he was being used as a pawn. 

    There's also the movie Ikuru which goes through the life of a man that has cancer and only has so much longer to live.  He wanted to live his life as freely as he could for the remainder of his life and accomplish something.  He does this by turning a swamp into a playground for children before his untimely death.  Having seen the movie, some of the dialogue between the main character and a woman really brings out the depth that Kurosawa is trying to convey.  Kanji, the main character, talks about how you should live life to the fullest because he didn't give it a second thought until he was face to face with death.

    The movie Yojimbo was a good example of how Kurosawa influenced other people.  A loner of a man comes to a city where there are 2 gangs that are on edge with one another.  The whole movie is setup in such a way that it reminds me westerns, and how they face off with one another in a dessert like town.  Kurosawa also goes all the way with making the characters and people of the town grungy and unclean.  Expressions are also played well throughout the film, giving the viewer some insight to what the character is thinking or feeling.

    I think these movies provide the foundation for Akira Kurosawa's auteurship and how he was a pioneer for such things as the main characters, feelings, and samurai slash movies which in turn inspired other film makers.  I feel that it gives him the right to have the title of being an autuer because of his many movies and strong influences of being innovative.