From a career that brought us gems like Rashomon (1950), Seven Samurai (1954) and Kagemusha (1980), in 1985, Akira Kurosawa unleashed Ran (pronounced 'Ron'), a brilliant retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear in a samurai setting.

     Tatsuya Nakadai shines luminously as Hidetora Ichimonji, a Sengoku warlord who decides to abdicate his kingdom to his three sons, Taro, Jiro and Saburo, who, in turn, war with their father and each other in an epic family feud that also saw the advent of guns render swords obsolete on the battlefield.

     Toru Takemitsu took a Gustav Mahler approach to the soundtrack, going very minimalist with drums and haunting flute crescendos.  I'll be honest, it still gives me chills.

     In all of it's runs in the theater and home video, Ran has only managed to barely break even with it's $12 million budget.  But time has shown this movie to not only stand with Kurosawa's best work, but with the best film work ever created.

 

     What Makes This Movie Cool:  Cinematic Excellence.  Everything from the costumes, the scenery, the dialogue, the battle scenes, the soundtrack, to the acting, the narratvie and the heart-stopping ending, Ran is a tour-de-force of all things enjoyable about cinema.