Stray Dog, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, & À nous la liberté

Stray Dog is the earliest Kurosawa I've seen. Not sure I want to go earlier in his filmography. I really enjoyed the film, but it wasn't nearly as good as his later works. Not as mature. But wow for the tension Kurosawa was able to create about the theft of one gun. Scares me that one gun could do that much damage. Us and our stupid gun laws make guns much more available, but the violence that can be caused by one gun is only limited by the amount of ammunition available. An early Toshiro Mifume film as well, so it was strange to see him looking very young.

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations just got me pissed off at Arkansas again. Seriously... that dad did it. That the police railroaded the Metallica-loving kids for those horrible murders is a tragedy. And man, I have lots of connections to Arkansas now. How can they watch this movie and not think that the kids didn't do it? Going on five anti-depressants for a lie detector test? Having your teeth taken out because they might connect you to bite marks? Jesus, you are a guilty, guilty man.

À nous la liberté clearly influenced, if not the outright source for, Modern Times. Chaplin's film, however, is much better. This is occasionally funny, but mainly just a weird combination of musical, silent film, and industrial society satire. It's the only one of those, besides Modern Times. Which, as I just said, is much better than this. Maybe I should avoid watching early French films, and stick with the New Wave. I like those much better.