35 out of 35 people found this review helpful.
SHOGUN DVD: A Passable Execution of an Excellent Novel
Date of Review: Jan 4, 2004
The Bottom Line: If you've read the book, then check this movie out as it's interesting and true to the story. If not, read the book!
Right out of the gate, this DVD had some disadvantages from my point of view. First, Shogun has been and probably will remain one of my top favorite novels, so my standards are high. Second, I had just finished watching today's Hollywood wizardry in "The Last Samurai", a movie with a smaller scope but masterful execution. Even so, I was incredibly excited to receive the Shogun 5-DVD set, and after a weekend of watching it, here's my impressions...
First you must remember a couple of things. The movie is a made-for-TV mini-series, not a movie of epic proportions like we are so used to seeing today. Also, it was done during the early eighties, so be prepared for the nuances you'd see from that time period: less-than-ideal audio, different hairdos... stuff like that. I'm going to contradict myself because most of my complaints from the film are closely connected to these facts.
Overall, the movie stays beautifully true to novel. At the time of the movie's filming, the book was wildly popular having sold millions of copies, so to deviate from the story to an appreciable extent would have been unwise. Fortunately, the novel permeates the motion picture, right down to the dialogue and expressions on the characters' faces. In other words, someone who has not read the book but seen the movie could do a decent job discussing it with someone who has read the book.
The acting itself is excellent, too. Blackthorne, the main character, is played by the American actor Richard Chamberlain, which kinda goes against the fact that the character is actually English. (James Clavell had in fact wanted Sean Connery or Roger Moore to play Blackthorne, though they were unattainable.) That said, Mr. Chamberlain does a decent acting job, especially when he does the crazy dance (read the book) at the gates of Osaka Castle. As for the supporting cast, their acting is excellent as well, from Father Alvito (Damien Thomas) to individual samurai. I particularly liked Michael Hordern's job as Friar Domingues, and John Rhys-Davies as Vasco Rodrigues. Masterfully done!
The bonus 5th DVD is a nice addition to this movie, in which the former directors and actors discuss the movie today. It's very interesting to learn all the behind-the-scenes magic that went on there, and the trials they had to go through to put this movie together. I especially liked the mini-documentaries that were devoted to historical perspectives of the movie... in fact, I would have liked more!
Much is made in the bonus DVD about the costumes and effects, and for the most part it's spectacular. Paintings are all done by hand, the costumes done by hand... not to the degree that you see in "The Last Samurai" but come on guys, it's decent enough! The one bit of special effects that really started to bug me, though, was the samurai pony-tail caps that all the samurai wore. You can easily see in most cases where the actors' skin ends and the cap begins. I'm pretty sure the actors of today would have probably shaved their heads for the movie. Perhaps I'm being too critical? Ugh... but it's so obvious!
Having said all these things, there are some crucial elements that are sorely lacking from the movie. For one, the story is pretty much told from Blackthorne's point of view. One of the great aspects of the novel is that multiple points of views are shown... you get inside the heads of the different actors, and it makes for an interesting tale. Now, I realize that doing so in a movie would be tough, but I'm betting that showing things strictly from Blackthorne's point of view wasn't as simple as the movie creators had imagined. I mean, half the time the movie is in Japanese anyway (no subtitles either), so there's a language problem there. Plus, when a critical part of the movie necessitated seeing things through the eyes of a character other than Blackthorne, the execution is clumsy: sometimes a narrator will take over while a character is thinking something or talking to another character... at one instant some words actually flashed on the screen to fill you in on what was being done. Again, fairly poor execution. Not only is the flow a little clumsy in this single-protagonist approach, but Clavell's surprise in the novel about Toranaga is far less shocking in the movie.
Another very annoying trait in the movie (mind you it's well over 9 hours) is the music. Repetitive, poor sound quality by today's standards (I know... I'm being unfair), and generally excruciating to listen to for a long time. There are very few breaks where there is no music playing... a trait common to older films. In addition, I'll grant that the music sounds like 80's mini-series music (does that make sense?), and that as a TV show, you'd be catching only bits and pieces of the music rather than listening to it for 2-3 hours at a time. Even so, at times the music gets extrememly dissonant, and even distracting from what was happening in the movie.
Hmm... I'm looking at what I've written and it doesn't seem all that positive. Well, in truth it was pretty good and I would recommend it to all who have read the novel. Of course, the novel is ten times better in my opinion, but that's usually the case. I'm really hoping that this novel is tackled once again as a movie project... maybe as a series for the bigscreen like "Lord of the Rings"... who knows? Hollywood has recently been producing more of these grand-scale movies. Until that time comes I'll read the book again rather than watch the movies.
