Capturing a Golden Moment #14: Ikiru

In this series I'd like to present some exceptional scenes inspired by cinema's most gifted artists of yesteryear.

Ikiru (1952)

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Scene: "The Finale"

# Note: My approach to describing the following scene will be different than the preceding entries in this series. The dramatic effect of Ikiru's final moments is not as self contained as its predecessors and is cumulative in nature, relying on the narrative strength of what has come beforehand. I would therefore request that these moments be respectfully observed by those who have seen the entire film. Otherwise it would be like reading only the last pages of a literary masterpiece. Please pardon my reverential attitude here but I consider this film to be cinema's finest, most spiritually profound work of art.  

This final scene concerns one of the office workers. After expressing silent outrage at his bureaucratic colleagues returning to their former ineffectiveness, he's stared down by his superior and reluctantly retreats behind a mountain of paperwork. At the end of the day he looks down from an overpass at some children joyfully using the playground his deceased former colleague Watanabe, with great effort and perseverance, created. (Previously celebrating his glorious accomplishment Watanabe sat on the playground's swing in the night's freezing cold singing a poignant song). Two children abandon the swing, the seats of which are left empty; the shot is held there as they gently sway back and forth. The song's tune is heard on the soundtrack. Is this meant as a symbolic invitation for us to fill the empty spaces and become "creators" ourselves? The figure stares down at the park before finally walking off. As he walks across the bridge from above, notice how the filmmakers ingeniously capture him, if only for a few seconds, in a pyramid shape of the swing structure the chains of which can still be seen swaying. And as he walks out of this framing device and then leaves the scene completely, is he representative of time that passes regardless of how we choose to live our lives suggesting the fleeting nature of man’s opportunity to give unto others? Watanabe is gone but his creation, his spiritual inspiration, endures. Its meaning, however, and perhaps more importantly what will be done about it, is left up to us.

Ikiru is available on Blu-ray (North America Region A locked) here:

Ikiru (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

$27.13

Starring Takashi Shimura

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It is also available for U.S. download here:

Ikiru

$2.99

Starring Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Kyoko Seki, Makoto Kobori, Kumeko Urabe

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Time Out - Rio Bravo "My Rifle, My Pony and Me"

Here's a bit of a Time Out within a Time Out. In this clip from Rio Bravo (1959), Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson sing a little song called "My Rifle, My Pony and Me." The tune was penned by the film's composer Dimitri Tiomkin (with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster) which interestingly enough derives from the same composer's music for another John Wayne / Howard Hawks western Red River (1948). The prominent theme is identified in the earlier film as "Settle Down."

Sterling Silver Dialogue #19

Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies:  

Do you know where they're from?

"I'm surprised that you're going away with him."

(response) "I'm surprised you think I would. Why the guy's no good, never was any good, never will be any good. He was born that way. His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."

“The stork that brought you should have been arrested for peddling dope.”

"You, on the level? Why, for six bits you'd hang your mother on a meat-hook."

"You'll always be a two-bit cannon and when they pick you up in the gutter dead, your hand'll be in a drunk's pocket."

"I remember the first time you told me that... that you were just one punch away from the title. Don't you see Bill, you'll always be one punch away."

"... you don't know what a love affair is."

(response) "It's what goes on between a man and a .45 pistol that won't jam.

"Prayer's not gonna keep you from being killed."

(response) "People don't pray to keep from dying. They pray to keep from being disappointed when they do."

"It was the bottom of the barrel and I scraped it, but I didn't care. I had her."

"Oh Jeff, you ought to have killed me for what I did a moment ago."

(response) "There's still time."

"If I had been a ranch they would have named me the Bar Nothing."

"You know, Johnny, when you play solitaire you can only beat yourself."

"My old man always said, liquor doesn't drown your troubles... just teaches 'em to swim."

"You can't take the law into your own hands! Things aren't done that way!"

(response) "That depends on who's doing them."

"Of course, killing you is killing myself. It's the same thing. But you know, I'm pretty tired of both of us."

"This guy's got 'em like that. He's everything they say he is!

(response) "What about you, Sal? Are you everything they say you are?"

"There's a lot of nobility in this room. Must be the panelling."

"Beware the beast man... for he is the devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport... or lust... or greed. Yea he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home, and yours. Shun him. Drive him back into his jungle lair: for he is the harbinger of death."

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #19 are here.

Capturing a Golden Moment #13: Jaws

In this series I'd like to present some exceptional scenes inspired by cinema's most gifted artists of yesteryear.

Jaws (1975)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Scene: "The Indianapolis"

This scene with no action per se, is perhaps the film's most terrifying. The immensely talented Robert Shaw plays Quint, who recounts his experience aboard the U.S.S. Indianapolis with the actor's customarily unique and intense delivery. The harrowing ordeal Quint describes is enhanced by one's awareness of the real-life incident itself and Shaw's reported authorship of his vivid account. Shaw, an accomplished playwright, submitted his own re-write of the scene after an uncredited John Milius' first draft sparked a disagreement between credited writers Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb. The added realism is in part due to the clever way the moment is foreshadowed by suggesting Quint's subtle reluctance to remind himself of the horrific event. Director Spielberg deserves credit for securing such natural performances from all 3 actors (including Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss).    

Jaws is available on Blu-ray here:

Jaws [Blu-ray]

$11.99

Starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton

Buy on Amazon

It is also available on DVD here:

Jaws

$3.74

Starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton

Buy on Amazon