For some action aficionados, today’s lineup of exhilarating blockbusters is a proverbial dream come true. For others, the recent glut of flashy, fast-paced action sequences in films can be exhausting. Not that the genre itself is outplayed, but that it’s not living up to what it could be.
Read More: Watch: Akira Kurosawa’s Love of Movement: A Video Essay
The perfect remedy for this plague of extravagance, according to the latest video essay from Channel Criswell’s Lewis Bond, lies in Akira Kurosawa’s seminal “Seven Samurai.” The video argues that, unlike modern day action flicks, the success of Kurosawa’s film was in the depiction of the protagonists’ actions and repercussions, plus a nuanced understanding of space and situation.
Of said-modern day action flicks, Bond notes: “They’re designed to titillate, and although today’s template to achieve this is through a kind of sensory overload,...
Read More: Watch: Akira Kurosawa’s Love of Movement: A Video Essay
The perfect remedy for this plague of extravagance, according to the latest video essay from Channel Criswell’s Lewis Bond, lies in Akira Kurosawa’s seminal “Seven Samurai.” The video argues that, unlike modern day action flicks, the success of Kurosawa’s film was in the depiction of the protagonists’ actions and repercussions, plus a nuanced understanding of space and situation.
Of said-modern day action flicks, Bond notes: “They’re designed to titillate, and although today’s template to achieve this is through a kind of sensory overload,...
- 10/18/2016
- by Mark Burger
- Indiewire
Bemoaning the sad state of contemporary action cinema has become almost as trite as the thing it’s ridiculing, but well-delivered criticism warrants attention. The new video by Channel Criswell’s Lewis Bond falls into this category, adopting as it does the effective rhetorical strategy of illustration by contrast. Rather than simply telling us why the latest superhero film is a sledgehammer to the eyes, this video spotlights its antithesis.
As Bond aptly puts it, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai supercedes so many of its modern-day successors in the action genre because it minds the consequences of violence and clearly delineates the space in which characters move. As such, its action scenes have emotional weight due to audience awareness of a battle’s high stakes, and they keep the story moving due to their coherence. In total opposition to Kurosawa’s visual paradigm, many of today’s action pictures neglect...
As Bond aptly puts it, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai supercedes so many of its modern-day successors in the action genre because it minds the consequences of violence and clearly delineates the space in which characters move. As such, its action scenes have emotional weight due to audience awareness of a battle’s high stakes, and they keep the story moving due to their coherence. In total opposition to Kurosawa’s visual paradigm, many of today’s action pictures neglect...
- 10/17/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Fresh off his Mulholland Drive being named the best film of the 21st century (so far), a new video essay delves into the works of David Lynch and explores the chief narrative constructs that fuel his vision. Channel Criswell (a.k.a. Lewis Bond) delves into film theory and the Freudian school of thought to explore exactly what “Lynchian” means, besides just a buzzword for saying something is weird. Bond’s “David Lynch—The Elusive Subconscious” is a 20-minute video that serves as a careful meditation on the artist’s oeuvre and looks at what makes his works so effective, so chilling, and so haunting.
Bond’s video looks at the way that Lynch uses images, audio, and psychological echoes of the subconscious to haunt audiences. By living in what Freud termed the “uncanny,” that space-between that is both frightening yet familiar, Lynch’s works lull viewers into Americana iconography...
Bond’s video looks at the way that Lynch uses images, audio, and psychological echoes of the subconscious to haunt audiences. By living in what Freud termed the “uncanny,” that space-between that is both frightening yet familiar, Lynch’s works lull viewers into Americana iconography...
- 9/6/2016
- by Rob Dean
- avclub.com
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