Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Merrie Melodies Bugs Bunny cartoon, the 1963 The Unmentionables, (featuring Rocky and Mugsy in their final appearance,) directed by Friz Freleng.
This is the only cartoon where both Bugs Bunny and the gangster duo Rocky and Mugsy lose in the end. This is also one of a few cartoons in which Bugs Bunny has less dialogue than any other character.
The very talented producers Aaron Brink (ABX) and Steve Reidell (STV SLV), together as the Hood Internet, have been creating musical mash-ups since 2007. Please join The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio hour is watching their latest release - an amazing half-hour megamix of 600 songs from 1990-1999. (Try to see how many of the songs you can identify.)
You will be excused if you can't get rid of that smile of recognition, on your face for a while.
We've picked another entry from the excellent reference book, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die by Steven Jay Schneider. Today's choice is brilliant 1957 adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth by Akira Kurosawa - Throne of Blood (Kumonosu Jo). The film, starring Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, and Takashi Shimura, re-imagines the Scottish play set in feudal Japan. While not a direct translation of the Shakespearean classic, Throne Of Blood works as great adaptation of Macbeth as well as a standalone samuraï film. The film is one of Toshiro Mifune's best roles in a Kurosawa film. With the exception of perhaps Tajomaru in Rashomon and Kikuchiyo in Seven Samurai, Mifune literally sears the scene with his presence. Kurosawa once said of Mifune, "The ordinary Japanese actor might need ten feet of film to get across an impression; Mifune needed only three." What makes Throne of Blood such a remarkable Shakespeare adaptation is the film’s use of disturbing imagery and sound rather than language to get across the great Shakespearean themes of the play. The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour would like you to join us in watching this classic from Kurosawa, Throne of Blood. So push away from the table, get comfortable and enjoy the film.
Kurosawa’s insistence on realism reached ridiculous heights - the volley of arrows that rain down on the samurai at the conclusion of the film, included real shafts shot by expert archers. Toshiro Mifune’s frantic arm waves at the arrows stuck in the wood around him also signaled to the archers which way he would move next: a safety measure concocted to reduce the probability of him being skewered for real.
Demand Euphoria!
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