The Ricochet Reviewer: Books, Movies, and Comics

by Mark Twain (AKA Samuel Clemens) This book has an understandable reputation in some quarters as the greatest American novel.   Mark Twain's great achievement is to write a story that is thrilling, engaging and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny, yet can also be appreciated on a very deep level.   Mark Twain (AKA Samuel Clemens) Huck Finn resists being "civilized," but he proves to have a practical intelligence and an innate moral sense that is superior to that of the civilized and educated society that looks down on him.  This is most powerfully represented by Huck's friendship with the runaway slave Jim.   Even though he believes, along with the rest of white society at that time, that he is doing the wrong thing by helping Jim escape, he cannot turn his back on a friend and decides that he would rather be "bad" than betray his trust.   They are joined for a time by a pair of con men who are terribly cultured (or at least do a good job of faking it), and Huc...

Director: Akira Kurosawa Writers: Akira Kurosawa & Shinobu Hashimoto & Hideo Oguni Stars: Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki, Kamatari Fujiwara, Daisuke Kato, Isao Kimura, Minoru Chiaki Akira Kurosawa's ground-breaking film features a  band of masterless samurai who accept an assignment to protect a farming village from bandits in return for food.   Although they are all down on their luck in poverty-ravaged Japan, they retain their dignity and sense of ethics and honor.   In addition to being an excellent action picture, it is also a fine character study that contrasts the various ways that people react to extreme hardships such as crushing poverty.   Two actors, both giants of Japanese cinema, stand out in the fine cast.   Takashi Shimura is Kanbei, the wise, inspirational leader who recruits the others.   Toshiro Mifune is Kikuchiyo, a farmer's son whose apparent disgust with the villagers masks his sense of se...