There's a tag
Jan. 26th, 2016 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fufarawin my collection, "forty minutes of costner closeups," which signifies what a good movie Wyatt Earp would have been without them. It's relevant to this post.
Watching Longmire on Netflix, I was prompted to ruminate on Graham Greene's career, and how much better a movie Dances With Wolves would have been without Dunbar as the central character. Likewise, Thunderheart.
Walter Crow Horse remains one of my favorite movie characters, and absolutely my favorite of Greene's.
In exactly the same way, The Last Samurai would have been indeed a "perfect" movie without the Algren character. Entry into Katsumodo's
world, as into the Lakota world of 1870 or 1990, would have been simpler, more organic without the contrivance of a tragic, conflicted white man and his coming to terms with his past while learning the way of the samurai.
Watanabe, Sanada, Koyamada, and Fukumoto, as well as the rest of the cast, would have been fascinating enough without the intrusion of Algren and the necessity of teaching and rehabilitating him that served as the impetus for the story. These and other stories would unfold in their starknesses and glory just fine without that white-insert "POV" character. I want to see stories from the point of view of the people who live it, not the outsider POV of "one of us" introduced from outside the culture.
Watching Longmire on Netflix, I was prompted to ruminate on Graham Greene's career, and how much better a movie Dances With Wolves would have been without Dunbar as the central character. Likewise, Thunderheart.
Walter Crow Horse remains one of my favorite movie characters, and absolutely my favorite of Greene's.In exactly the same way, The Last Samurai would have been indeed a "perfect" movie without the Algren character. Entry into Katsumodo's
world, as into the Lakota world of 1870 or 1990, would have been simpler, more organic without the contrivance of a tragic, conflicted white man and his coming to terms with his past while learning the way of the samurai.Watanabe, Sanada, Koyamada, and Fukumoto, as well as the rest of the cast, would have been fascinating enough without the intrusion of Algren and the necessity of teaching and rehabilitating him that served as the impetus for the story. These and other stories would unfold in their starknesses and glory just fine without that white-insert "POV" character. I want to see stories from the point of view of the people who live it, not the outsider POV of "one of us" introduced from outside the culture.
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Date: 2016-01-27 08:53 pm (UTC)Also, how are you enjoying Longmire? It seemed like it'd be up my alley, but I haven't taken a look at it yet.
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Date: 2016-01-27 09:40 pm (UTC)Something I highly approve of is the number of Native American actors in the cast, especially since the series is supposed to be set near a Cheyenne reservation.
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Date: 2016-01-27 09:42 pm (UTC)Thanks!!