Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: THE LONG GOODBYE (1973)

From: jumblejim ( jumblejim@prodigy.net)
Date: 21 Aug 2003


>
> > Do you feel the same way about, say, Kurosawa's
> > versions of
> > Shakespeare, or about Polanski's film version of
> > Macbeth?
>
> Haven't seen either THRONE OF BLOOD or Polanski's
> MACBETH. That said, Kurosawa, strictly speaking,
> wasn't adapting Shakespeare's play. He was taking the
> same historical events, transposing them to Japan, and
> then telling the story his own way.

I'm afraid you're not familiar enough with either Kurosawa's intent nor the
"historical events" of Macbeth. Kurosawa has spoken and written extensively about his adaptation of Shakespeare's play, making clear his intent to transpose the play (not the events) to a Japanese setting. And the events of the play that are carried from Macbeth to Throne of Blood are the dramatic creations of Shakespeare, not history. Banquo's ghost is not an historical event, but a dramatic one created by Shakespeare, and it's prominent in Throne of Blood. Same for the witches (three in Shakespeare, one in Kurosawa, but serving the same dramatic purpose). The scheming wife, floating daggers, the march of the forest toward the castle, the wife's suicide, none of these have historical bases, but all are adapted from Shakespeare's play into Kurosawa's film. The historical basis of Macbeth, btw, is pretty much limited to the murder of a Scottish king by one who succeeds him. The play, based loosely on this event, is Shakespeare's creation and Kurosawa's basis for Throne of Blood. For Kurosawa, the history was damn near irrelevant.

Jim Beaver

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