In Defense of Red Beard

In discussing the new Kurosawa DVDs coming out soon, Dave Kehr dismisses Red Beard as a film losing its stature as time goes on. His insinuation is that modern audiences are not willing to accept the films he made outside of the Samurai genre. While I would agree that, of his 55 films (many of which feature no swordplay at all), some would lose their stature over the years, the specific mention of Red Beard as one of these does a disservice to both Kurosawa and the film itself. Rob’s comments on the same subject spark me to wonder if that’s really happening. I have a hard time understanding this. Since seeing it for the first time a few years ago, it has become one of the most indispensable films in my collection and my favorite of all Kurosawa’s films.

Kurosawa’s Samurai films are fantastic, there’s no doubt about that. But with all the trick shots, fast editing and muddy fights gone, with everything stripped down, Red Beard stands as a masterwork of filmmaking and storytelling. Looking, however, at a 183 minute run-time and seeing some performances, especially in the opening, that are overwrought and dated, feels daunting, but it does not take very long for the story to take over. In response to its length, the film is told episodically, and the distinct plotlines help to both keep the story running and to watch the film in chunks as a kind of serial (which I find a great way to watch a film like this). The overriding story of Dr. Yasumoto (Yuzo Kayama in, ultimately, a fantastic performance), just out of a Dutch medical school, who is tricked into coming to a medical camp for the most poverty stricken and is forced to stay for his internship by Dr. Niide (Toshiro Mifune, in his last role with Kurosawa), the strict, stoic head doctor known as Red Beard, feels forced initially. But as Niide guides Yasumoto through some of the grimmest displays in film, Red Beard becomes Kurosawa’s most human picture.

There is no contempt for the suffering of these people, some sick and some [highly] disturbed; only the deepest respect for their will to affect others. Each story moves me on a real emotional level. Whether it’s the sickening description by “The Mantis” (Kyoko Kagawa, creepily believable) of the reasons for her sexually charged murders, or the heart-wrenching story of why Sahachi (Tsutumoto Yamazaki) must give everything he has away over and over again, I always find myself completely inside this movie--following it and feeling it the whole way. The message that poverty and ignorance cause their suffering instead over disease speaks to the audience as much to those at its release as to us. The “strange cancers” that the doctors find in the stricken, most topically related to what Japanese doctors must have been finding in people twenty years after the nuclear holocausts, give the film a relevance and heart that few films can match. The story aside, the starkness of the sets and the persistence to extend the shots allow the viewer to appreciate the beauty of the lighting and the movement of the shadows who tell stories unto themselves, set pieces that often feel alien, and a series of characters that are unforgettably performed. The film soars far above what Dave Kehr calls “self-conscious art house efforts” and is on level with any film from any time. Red Beard is a truly great film from a great artist who should be remembered for more than his Samurai films. Watch this movie!!