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For this Sunday Kino Night, first up is The Burmese Harp (1956), a Japanese WW2 drama about a soldier in Burma who evades Allied capture by disguising himself as a Buddhist monk and going into the mountains to convince Japanese holdouts to surrender. While at first, he just pretends to be a monk, he inhabits the role more and more as he wanders the countryside in search of his countrymen, and copes with the loss of the war. This is considered one of the best films of the 1950s, and arguably the magnum opus of director Kon Ichikawa, whose other WW2 drama, Fires on the Plain (1959), we previously watched.
After that is Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973), a revisionist western from New Hollywood auteur Sam Peckinpah, whose Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) we previously watched. In 1881 New Mexico, some rich cattle owners hire Pat Garrett to hunt down and kill his former outlaw comrade, Billy the Kid. A pursuit ensues, entailing a whole lot of blood and violence, while the cattle owners put their sinister development plans into operation. Is the Wild West about to be corrupted by capitalism? Yes. This is considered one of Peckinpah’s best films, and a New Hollywood classic, so let’s check it out.
We’ll start at 8PM EST on Blorptube, right here:
https://blorp.bot.nu/o/visual_cuisine
Be there, comrades!
Letterboxd:
- The Burmese Harp: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-burmese-harp/
- Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid: https://letterboxd.com/film/pat-garrett-billy-the-kid/
Doesthedogdie.com links:
- The Burmese Harp: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/89407
- Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070518/parentalguide/
CWs for The Burmese Harp:
- Blood and gore.
- Shaving scene.
- Cutting of flesh.
- Gun violence.
- Shower scene.
- Unconsciousness.
- Sad ending.
CWs for Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid:
- Nudity.
- Sexual assault: a man begins to assault a woman, ripping open her top, but he is then stopped.
- Sex.
- Prostitution.
- Bath scene.
- Objectification of female characters.
- Slapping of woman.
- Gun violence.
- Blood and gore.
- Cruelty to animals.
- Throat mutilation.
- Cutting of flesh.
- Someone leaves without saying goodbye.
- Homelessness.
- Head trauma.
Links to movies:
- The Burmese Harp: https://tankie.tube/w/x9ZqEZutJdHMUvpfmRdUja
- Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid: https://tankie.tube/w/utUWQ5iXSkR8umsqDmHJqp