Crushing, yet ultimately humane and beautiful film.

Rating: 10/10 (30 September 2010)

Ran is in my opinion Kurosawas most epic films in the mammoth scale of what it tries to tackle. All in one it is a crushing film trying to display the hopenlessness of humanity; the hypocrisy of hierarchy, the lack of morality within our societal structures, the greed and lust for power. Religion gets thrown in, and it's an anti-war film all in one. You might not take it all in, you don't need to, you take what you want from it and no more. It's impossible to sum it all up in one review, and impossible to grasp all in one viewing.
Kurosawa is most definitely a genius with a camera that's for sure, although i've heard this film described as 'clunky'. I'd definitely put it under vibrant, very colourful and the shots throughout are exquisite. Tatsuya Nakadai puts in one of the best performances of all time, and his portrayal of suffering and almost the loss of soul is impeccable, and some of the shots of him are unforgettable. The cogs are kept turning by the spontaneity of the whole thing, each step assuredly moving us one rung up the ladder, but without revealing the exact locale of the next.
The film is definitely a film of segments; we start out with the merciless lord Hidetora out boar hunting with his three sons, and two rival clan faction leaders. Hidetora is old and falls asleep after the hunt. He dreams a crushing dream - almost a prophetic dream - of himself walking aimlessly in a field with no voice able to hear him; lonely. The inevitable outcome of his ruthless life, and his bad karma perhaps, would be his own downfall. He was blind to everything around him but his own power. So although notably shook up, he hastily forgets about it.
His three sons are of very different characters, and he gives the head status of his clan to his eldest son, and thus also the land to his eldest son. The youngest son is forth rite in his words and proclaims he must be senile if he thinks power of such magnitude can be passed on so easily; without any bad feeling, even amongst brothers, and as such he is exiled. His father was so blind to all around him that he couldn't accept he could be wrong, and furthermore took it as a threat.
The second stage of the film is when the soul crushing venture really begins as the naivety of Lord Hidetoya's decisions bear fruition, war soon breaks out, and he is completely stripped bear, and the fall of himself and all around him slowly commences. It's the beginning of his humbling in position to put it lightly.
If there is one thing this film certainly is, it is anti-war. The main real focus on war is the sheer hypocrisy and irony which surrounds it. That doesn't mean to say that there aren't epic battles because there sure are, but there is something more mystical and poignant in them far beyond a grandiose scope of a battle.
Hidetoya's closest companion ends up being the fool, whom says to the mighty Lord "A bird traded it's speckled and dirty egg for that of the pristine white egg of a snake" "The white egg hatched, and the baby snake ate the bird" Beauty definitely isn't on the outside, it's on the inside, and this is said at Hidetoya's most humbling of moments. The man once adorned in his white and golden robes, he whom thought of himself as closest to the gods, and would have ruled as a complete dictator, had a complete role reversal with a man whom was living his life out making a fool of himself for others entertainment. His outer grandiose state no longer meant anything when when removed from his pedestal.