Kurosawa, as obsessively as any other artist, [explores] the nature and possibility of heroic action in a world that is basically corrupt, corrupt almost as a consequence of its human-ness. What likelihood for humanitarian commitment remains and what is its inexorable cost in such a society? Is man doomed to a kind of intellectualizing impotency, or can action be redemptive and rejuvenating? Is action necessarily violent? Film after film elaborates these conundra, using telephoto lenses to show us the minutia of faces and expressions far away, sharp (often perpendicular) angles and harshly contrasting lighting to accentuate the harshness of existence and the brittleness of human relations, and wide angle lenses to juxtapose opposing camps. Just as we see characters literally wiped out with a spectacular gesture of the sword, so does Kurosawa make the wipe one of his most characteristic camera transitions. (p. 158)

Despite its seeming simplicity,… Kurosawa's...