This is by far the greatest film version of the Scottish play. Well, the best out of the three I've seen. Orson Welles' 1948 version has some great stylistic touches, but it's overcome by being one of his bizarre "experimental" films. The whole thing appears to have been filmed in some sort of cave and with very little lighting. The whole thing has a very muddled look to it, though it is worth checking out. Roman Polanski's version was, aside from an incredible opening and closing, some good bits in between, and a great overall look to it, rather boring. And it was executive produced by Hugh Hefner, so that accounts for the strange naked witches (though the whole thing was directed pretty interestingly). Anyway, Throne of Blood is an amazing film. It just gets everything right. This is the one that really got to the heart of the Shakespeare tragedy. It perfectly conveyed the themes of the dark side of human nature and lust for power. Amazing movie.
I haven't seen that new one, Scotland, Pa., though, but I can't imagine it being nearly as good as this.
"Enjoy the show. For one day, we shall die." --The Simpsons
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21 years ago
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General_Bel_Riose
21 years ago
Can you tell me the features for the DVD of Ikiru? That is my favorite Kurosawa movie and I heard they added a lot of neat stuff.
Free your mind, your ass will follow
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TheProctologist
21 years ago
BE WARNED! I bought a set of Kurosawa dvd's with the original release of Ikiru included. If you're an American viewer, or don't know japanese, DO NOT BUY THIS DVD! The subtitles are horrific. At least 75 percent of them are not grammatically correct english sentences, and for over half of them, it's difficult to understand what the people mean because the translation is so poor. There's rampant misspelling, nonsensical text, just terrible. The only way to go is to buy the Criterion edition of the movie. Make sure its the Criterion version, these have great video transfers, improved sound, and lots of special features. For anyone who hasn't seen Ikiru, even with this horrible DVD I was still touched by the movie. See it, and see throne of blood while you're at it.
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Nevermind81
20 years ago
It’s the same with the subtitles of the Seven Samurai DVD - the people who made them have lost their honour because of failure and should commit suicide. Well I don’t think it really matters because subtitles gave you only an approximate idea of the meaning and you can guess the rest by watching the movie and the way the people speak in their original language.
And I wouldn’t compare this movie with Roman Polanski’s version, so far I haven’t seen the version made by Orson Wells, sadly – in the wasteland I live its not easy to get such movies...
It's only after we've lost everything that we are free to do anything
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O_L_D_B_O_Y
20 years ago
I received a DVD copy of Throne Of Blood like the one you described - awful subtitles. The BFI (British Film Institute) releases of Kurosawa films have been very good indeed, so I shall be seeking out their Throne Of Blood DVD.
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