Medium Core

Ok, so I like to study movies, but in a sort of casual way. I like to keep an eye on the opening credits for names I recognize, like the Visual Effects supervisor, the writer of the musical score, the producer, etc. Nothing really serious, but somewhat more than most people, I think. Anyway, you may recall from an earlier post, I am somewhat interested in the history of action movies, which is why I watched the movie Ran, which was directed by Akira Kurosawa several decades ago. Ran was pretty good, so I thought I would check out another of his works, "Seven Samurai."

Turns out I don't have what it takes.

See, when the movie arrived (yay Netflix!), I didn't give it a good once-over like I should have. I set it on the shelf and a few days later sat down to watch it with a huge pile of Grandma's Spaghetti. I soon discovered that the movie had three strikes against it (more or less): It was black and white, it was subtitled, and it was four hours long.

Four hours.

Now, in and of themselves, any two of those three things wouldn't be such a bad thing, but good gravy, when I'm munching on spaghetti and trying to relax, I just can't handle a four-hour black and white subtitled Japanese movie. So with all due respect to Kurosawa (and with apologies to Gavin, who did watch it a few years ago), I mailed it back without watching it. But hey, that's how things go, I guess. I'm making my through Goodfellas right now, with Heat sitting on the shelf waiting to be watched, as well as The Godfather Part 2. Summer is a good time, folks. :)