Kurosawa Tribute

Rating: 8/10 (28 January 2017)

This movie feels like a love letter to classic Kurosawa movie making and I think Scorcese nails it. There's a bit of Tarkovsky in the storytelling as instead of feeling sympathy towards the heroes and malevolence towards the villains, you end up with a sense of indifference and a reminder that not every villain is evil.
The movies biggest flaw is probably the lack of direction at times, yet I am unsure how deliberate this was by the filmmakers. As an obvious homage to Kurosawa and a possible one to Tarkovsky I enjoy this method of storytelling. It allows the viewer to interpret the story themselves, rather than saturating the movie with needless exposition and dialogue to reinforce a point.
Sure, this isn't Goodfellas, but instead its a total different direction for Scorcese to tell a story and I think this film is beautiful. Is it Scorceses best work? To be honest, it doesn't matter.