SamuraiBanners

Samurai Banners (1969)

This movie is a historical epic that spans many years in the life of a Samurai named Kansuke Yamamoto. The movie opens with Yamamoto manipulating situations to earn himself a position with a powerful clan and ingratiate himself to the clan’s leader Shingen Takeda. It is Yamamoto’s dream to see Japan united from sea to sea under a powerful leader and he thinks that Takeda is that man. Using his superior skills as a strategist Yamamoto helps the powerful lord win battle after battle. Not only that but he even manipulates the birth and eventual training of Takeda’s heir. In the end Yamamoto makes one strategic blunder that might spell doom for all the years of planning, unless he is willing to lead one final desperate charge to save them all.

This is a very different movie from what I’m used to watching. Most of the time when I sit down to watch a Samurai movie I expect a moral and a lot of swordplay. This is more of a historical drama than action movie, which I did enjoy in other ways. The story has an epic scale to it, which is probably why the movie clocks in at over 165 minutes! So be prepared to spend some quality time with your seat when you go to watch this one. My favorite parts of the movie have to do with the small moments where the character of Yamamoto is manipulating events in the favor of his lord or convincing others to follow his path. This might be because of the performance of the legendary Toshirô Mifune, who plays Yamamoto with his usual skill and subtlety. He was a fascinating and incredible actor that I’ve yet to see not be good in any role he took on. But as great as these moments are they do get lost at times in the larger historical story. There are so many battles, characters, and jumps in time that it is easy to become lost. I’m used to these kinds of movies and have a decent amount of knowledge of Japanese history and I was confused at times. So I’m not sure that this would be a very accessible movie to a newcomer to the Samurai genre. Plus in spite of all the battles there really isn’t’ that much swordplay, so those looking for that will also be disappointed.

From a technical standpoint this is a beautifully shot and executed movie. The scenes are well drawn with the camera capturing the beauty of the natural surroundings. The costumes and sets are also top notch and I believe historically accurate (I’m not an expert by any means). While there aren’t really any choreographed fights like I’m used to there is obviously a lot of care put into the large battle scenes and how they are staged. This is just a really well made movie.

As you can tell from my review there are a lot of things going for this movie. But in spite of that I think that it is way too easy to get lost in the bigger historical plot and the multitude of characters and story lines it brings. I’m glad I checked it out and Mifune is wonderful in it, but this might not be for everyone. So unless you are a big fan of the man or love Japanese history you might want to pass on this one.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer