A 1950 film by
Akira Kurosawa starring
Toshiro Mifune. One of Kurosawa's many movies set in feudal
Japan, Rashomon tells the story of a murder from four different perspectives, and examines human nature through the differences in each witness's story. The movie is such a classic exploration of this concept of varying point-of-view, that the term "Rashomon" now refers the use of this device in any movie.
As always, there is a Simpsons reference for all occasions:
MARGE: Come on, Homer, Japan will be fun. You liked Rashomon.
HOMER: That's not how I remember it!
The recent American films Courage Under Fire and Rules of Engagement borrow from the themes of Rashomon.
Not all movies which tell stories from multiple points of view are truly following the Rashomon style. Go and Pulp Fiction are commonly cited examples of the style, but differ from Rashomon on several points. Where Rashomon deals with the same story being told by different people, each telling it differently, or emphasizing different facts, Go and PF are largely telling different stories of the characters, but all of whose stories cross paths at one time or another. Rashomon has only two settings, and the rape/muder of the story involves all the storytellers. Go and Pulp Fiction both have many different people doing many different things, with only passing interaction between many of the characters. None of the characters in these two films contradict the others. Rashomon focuses on the contradictions inherent in human perception.
To my mind, this is an important distinction.
Perhaps following up on the success of remaking
The Seven Samurai as a
western, the film was remade as a western called
The Outrage by Martin Ritt in 1964. Although
Toshiro Mifune's role was played by the similarly formidible
Paul Newman it is not the excellent remake that The Magnificent Seven was. This is all the more suprising when you think that the film also featured a stellar performance by the king of smooth delivery himself,
William Shatner.
facts regarding 'The Outrage' checked on IMDB at http://us.imdb.com/Title?0058437