I have a problem too with assuming that something was
borrowed or stolen because of similarities in the story as
well when that's the only evidence. A friend of my wrote a
spec script once for Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and was accepted
as a potential screenwriter for the show. Her script wasn't
accepted though because they were already wrapping up an
episode with pretty much the same story. Now I haven't seen
the Japanese film in question, however, I have seen "A Fist
Full of Dollars," "Last Man Standing," and have read "Red
Harvest" ... if the only thing that's tying them all together
is the fact that there are similarities in the story/plot and
that the fact that one predates the other ... well, that
ain't enough to hang OJ.
I've tossed three stories that I was working on into the
drawer because Hollywood or another author published the same
or a very similar story before I could ... although I still
think one was actually stolen while we were both on DorothyL.
So it is by no means outside the realm of possibility that
none of those involved were actually aware of the other's
work. Without any confirmation on the author's part, I'd say
probably so.
Hell, we live on a planet whose cultures all share very
similar mythical stories ... the flood myth nearly covers the
globe with the various peoples who have a flood story as do
dragons and other mythical concepts.
That's not to say that people haven't stolen other people's
stories, but you need more evidence than similarity. As the
cliché §oes: everything's already been written.
-- Anthony Dauer
Hard-boiled Noir http://www.adau.net/judas_ezine/toc.htm
-----Original Message----- From: billha@ionet.net Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2000 1:25 AM
Greetings to DC's Finest (missed you at the door), but having said that I have to express my usual scepticism on the Kurosawa borrowing idea. We argued this at length once upon a time, and I'm just old enough to have forgotten all the excellent points I undoubtedly made (?)...but I don't remember that anyone came up with a hard link; the evidence was circumstantial. As someone mentioned recently, Kurosawa doesn't acknowledge the debt.
Probably we need someone who knows all those Jacobean blood revenge plays (with bodies galore) to find the real origins of the plot in question.
I agree that Miller's Crossing feels like Red Harvest, more than Kurosawa's or Leone's films do. Feels like it in the great scenes, urban setting, within a plot that is episodic, a series of actions that start and stop, sometimes a bit separated at the seams. On the other hand, both Kurosawa and Leone have a fairly unified plot, rising to an expected, ultimate face-off.
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