The Outrage

This 1964 movie is a "remake" of Roshomon. They call it a remake, but the onscreen credit saying that it is based on the film is so tiny it's almost illegible. They transplanted the story to the American west. The film is notable for two reasons. Number one is that Paul Newman plays a Mexican bandito. Complete with brown face and Speedy Gonzales accent. It's distracting at first, but once I got used to it, I found it to be a (not suprisingly) tremendous performance. Because of the literary conceit, he played the same scene four different ways. Each time more compelling. The second reason it's noteworthy is that William Shatner is in it. Shatner - Newman. Do I have to say anything else? They share very little screen time and never really interact with one another. It's a surprisingly understated performance from Kirk. I struggled to grasp the original, so I suppose this is a perfect version for me. It's dumbed down and because the cultural symbolism is easier for me to reference I was able to follow it a lot better. One annoying aspect is that the director seemed to feel it was necessary to match Kurosawa's visual flair. So there's a lot of "dutch" angles and "signficant" transition shots. Much of that was just distracting and some of the moving camera shots during the fight scenes were actually in the way of the story. Overall, however, it's worth seeing for the acting and the use of the Roshomon techinique