The Human Condition (Redux)

This is the fourth and final film that the unproduced screenplay I read reminded me of.

Bullshit I can't hear you. Sound off like you got a pair!

I watched Full Metal Jacket last week and it's such a kick ass film. I was moved to rewatch after having watched The Human Condition over the course of a week. I saw FMJ in the theaters when I was 11 and admittedly did not get all the humor and sexual references at the time.

Here are some quotes:

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: How tall are you, private?
Private Cowboy: Sir, five-foot-nine, sir.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Five-foot-nine, I didn't know they stacked shit that high.

Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Tonight, you pukes will sleep with your rifles. You will give your rifle a girl's name because this is the only pussy you people are going to get. Your days of finger-banging ol' Mary J. Rottencrotch through her pertty pink panties are over! You're married to this piece. This weapon of iron and wood. And you will be faithful. Port, hut!

I also have to say what a great actor Vincent D'Onofrio is because he literally can morph into his roles and become them (as opposed to a bad actor like Tom Cruise who is always Tom Cruise). While watching it, you almost think he has Down's syndrome or something, he's just so believable. Thus his awesomeness is what earned him in the Manly Men Hall of Fame.

Likewise, Matthew Modine is also great in the role and he and D'Onofrio were both 28 at the time of this filming. Even though Modine isn't my "type" in terms of looks, I was attracted to his character because he's smart, a wise ass, and in control (and a writer to boot) and I told Dan the character reminded me of him. So Private Joker is a cutie.

Watch the opening scene I embedded above, the acting is so great by D'Onofrio, you can see why the character would be smiling the way he is, partly due to nerves, yes, when there is a drill instructor screaming in your face, but also if someone was saying things like, "I'm gonna gouge out your eyes and skull fuck you," and "Do you suck dicks?" I'd probably be laughing too.

And Vincent had to fatten up for that role: he's actually kind of sexy.

Fires On The Plain

Watch the opening of the film:



What a beginning. And, that Kon Ichikawa's film came out in the same year as the first part of Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition shows how filmmakers with similar material can diverge so greatly, even from the start.

Both films have alot going for them, but I lean toward Ichikawa's film- it is shorter, less preachy, and darkly comedic. It also is the sort of film not so consciously striving for 'greatness' and award ribbons at film festivals.

What say you?

Review of The Human Condition

Here it is.

Finishing The Human Condition.

Wow. Dan and I just finished the last part to The Human Condition and this poor, poor man. I can't decide which is more depressing, this or The Weeping Meadow. Though I cried at the end of that one, and didn't cry at the end of The Human Condition, though it still impacted me in a different way.

This is a 9 and a half hour epic long film, but I do recommend you watching it. It is worth it. You will be pulled into this man's life and struggle and come to care about him. He's really well developed, and you do see him changing over time. It's amazing what these people during The World Wars had to endure. Will they ever get a break?

Dan identifies with the lead character, Kaji, in that he stands up for what he believes in and what he knows to be right, he is overlooked and treated like shit by those who despise him for this very quality, and he seems to get a lot of bad luck. The character is strong and intelligent and never backs down. The film leaves you with the message that good people suffer and die while bad ones very often thrive, though this perseverance is this innate quality within the Human Condition itself, and for those who don't have it, they will envy and despise those that do.

But this is the great thing about great art, in that unlike this soldier, who represents many, many lives who were overlooked and scorned despite being inherently good, great art lives and survives further than even good character.

So give it a watch. Can't wait to read the review!

Still More Human Condition

2/3's of the way thru and still a good film. A bit preachy, and Part 4 was not as good as Part 3, but it's an interesting schism within the lead character. As he gets closer to real humanity- in its full ugliness, he gets farther away from his ideal of happiness, yet he's a better person.

The film is not great and some editing was needed, but quite ambitious, and the rare film deserving of the moniker epic.

More Human Condition

This film obviously influenced many later films, such as Full Metal Jacket. The third part is really a change from Parts One and Two, in that the main characters is starting to ethically collapse. But wel done.

Not a poetic film, but good.

I know where Kubrick got his idea from!

Dan and I were watching The Human Condition tonight, and there is an interesting scene in part 3 where a character is getting picked on and beaten up by his fellow recruits and the character is pretty much a whiner but you feel sorry for him. Anyhow, this put us in mind of Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, which obviously took some of the ideas from this film.

Not only that, but the recruit then goes off the commit suicide via way of rifle in the latrine, no less. So it was just interesting to see where Kubrick stole his idea from. I remember when I saw Full Metal Jacket in the theatres and this scene scared me. I would have only been eleven at the time.

The Human Condition

Busy few days, so I'm finally watching Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition- a new Criterion Collection release, and a mamoth sized film at 9 1/2 hours.

That's over 2 hours longer than Bela Tarr's Satantango!

Here's the trailer:


So far, so good. I'm a third of the way thru, and, naturally, some trims should have been made, but, since it's the length of a de facto miniseries, I tend to compare it to some of the classics of that genre, like Upstairs, Downstairs, Rich Man, Poor Man, Roots, and The Thornbirds. And it's better....so far.

A bit preachy, and actually a bit too tame in its depiction of Imperial atrocities at work camps, since, by most accounts, even visiting Nazi officials- men who were running the European death camps, were startled at the brutality of the Japanese treatment of POWs. Of course, the first part of this film came out in 1959, so some restraint is to be expected, but overall, I'm hooked into the main character; a humanist who's at wits with his inner self.

More to come!