A real masterpiece

The explosion in CGI technology has meant it is now possible to show battle scenes with ..ooh..trillions of people. Trouble is, with one notable exception, they?ve looked just like sophisticated video games.

This film, made in 1980, was filmed in the old fashioned way and it far surpasses any of the CGI brigade in terms of realism and beauty. Kurosawa was only working with a few hundred extras yet he conjures up cinematic images - the retreating army silhouetted against a blood-red sky springs to mind - that remind you film can be an art-form. My biggest regret is that I wish I?d seen this on the big screen, The DVD copy is a fine wide-screen transfer but it can?t match the real cinematic experience.

The film is not without its faults; narrative structure was never the directors? strong-point. Some of the action is confusing, the acting is very theatrical in comparison with western styles, some of the characters behave inconsistently and there?s no sense of time in the thing ? the grandson doesn?t grow up at all in the three year time period; but, then again, this is not what the film is about.

Kurosawa doesn?t move his camera very much. In contrast with the edit and zoom ridden western way, the viewer is able to appreciate the glorious vistas he puts in front of them.

Some of you may find the film slow and theatrical, while others will love it to the level of pretentiousness (I know), but you can?t ignore its magnificence or, indeed, its relevance.

Just watch ?Lord of the Rings? ? the notable CGI exception I mentioned at the beginning. There are at least a couple of sequences in ?Kagemusha? that appear in almost identical fashion in Peter Jackson?s work. Methinks Mr Jackson owes Kurosawa a lot.