I am not sure why this movie is getting a 7.0 rating other than the local shots in post WW2 Japan which are nothing short of incredible.
That being said, tbh I was shocked at the pedestrian nature of Brando's characterization of Ace. His southern accent was quite poor and really distracted from the dialogue. In addition he looked bored or disinterested or something. Maybe the material just wasn't there for him to work with.
Which leads to my second point, the movies cadence was weird. The way Ace and Hana-Ogi fell in love was simply implausible. One minute she is lamenting that her family was killed by American soldiers the next she is declaring her deep love for him, this after light stalking and about 3 minutes of dialogue.
Transitions between shots and plot points were similarly strange and illogical. Some of the scenes, such as Ace's search for Hana-Ogi at the school, didn't really serve a purpose in the plot.
It kind of feels as if the director or producer (or both) were trying way too hard to avoid presenting the US military as racist, hence the moustache twirling bad guy, Colonel Crawford, who apparently was the only truly racist officer in the movie. Or maybe it was just poor story telling.
To the Directors and Producers credit this was clearly intended to be an anti-racism movie well before a movie like form was acceptable to the wider US movie audience, so kudo's to them for that
Just a strange movie over all but saved (in part) by the cinematography.
That being said, tbh I was shocked at the pedestrian nature of Brando's characterization of Ace. His southern accent was quite poor and really distracted from the dialogue. In addition he looked bored or disinterested or something. Maybe the material just wasn't there for him to work with.
Which leads to my second point, the movies cadence was weird. The way Ace and Hana-Ogi fell in love was simply implausible. One minute she is lamenting that her family was killed by American soldiers the next she is declaring her deep love for him, this after light stalking and about 3 minutes of dialogue.
Transitions between shots and plot points were similarly strange and illogical. Some of the scenes, such as Ace's search for Hana-Ogi at the school, didn't really serve a purpose in the plot.
It kind of feels as if the director or producer (or both) were trying way too hard to avoid presenting the US military as racist, hence the moustache twirling bad guy, Colonel Crawford, who apparently was the only truly racist officer in the movie. Or maybe it was just poor story telling.
To the Directors and Producers credit this was clearly intended to be an anti-racism movie well before a movie like form was acceptable to the wider US movie audience, so kudo's to them for that
Just a strange movie over all but saved (in part) by the cinematography.