Superman throws down in Times Square as June 1981 continues
Plus Burt Reynolds throws a party and everyone comes
We’re halfway through the month and there have already been so many gigantic titles. I was authentically insane about Raiders of the Lost Ark after I saw it, but that didn’t mean it was the only game in town. I look back at this release schedule now and I’m shocked I managed to get to the theater for as many of these as I did. I think it helps that films played for longer and that, during the summer, I was able to find all sorts of people going to the theater who I could hitch a ride with besides my parents.
There are only four movies that were released this weekend, and two of them are movies that people still talk about. The other two also exist… barely.
It’s a fascinating study in contrasts, so let’s dive right in…
JUNE 19
The Bushido Blade
Richard Boone, Toshirô Mifune, Mike Starr, Timothy Patrick Murphy, Frank Converse, William Ross, Bin Amatsu, Sony Chiba, Iwae Arai, Mayumi Asano, James Earl Jones, Laura Gemser, Mako, Kin Omai, Tetsurô Tanbacinematography by Shôji Ueda
music by Maury Laws
screenplay by William Overgard
produced by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass
directed by Tom Kotani
Rated R
1 hr 44 mins
Set against the backdrop of a real treaty signing between the United States and feudal Japan, the theft of a historical sword threatens to derail everything.
You can smell the ‘70s all over this one.
The film sat on a shelf for almost four years before it was finally released, and for good reason. It fails as any kind of history lesson about Commodore Matthew Perry and his efforts to open trade routes to Japan in the 1850s. There’s certainly a film to be made about that subject matter. It was a crazy series of expeditions and he wrote a three-volume book about it which would make terrific source material. This is not that movie, though. Instead, this is all about a sword, the titular Bushido blade, which is presented by Akira Hayashi (Toshirô Mifune) to Perry (Richard Boone) as a sign of honor on behalf of the Shogun.
You have to put this film in the context of when it was made. James Clavell’s Shōgun was released in 1975 and it was a monster runaway best-selling hit. Development on the film started almost immediately, with Robert Bolt (Oscar-winning screenwriter of Lawrence of Arabia, among others) signed to adapt the screenplay. It eventually turned into a nine-hour television miniseries instead of a film, but everyone knew the adaptation was coming, and there were several things made to cash in on the public’s hunger for this particular story and time period. This film feels like they took a moment in real history and then tried to figure out how to graft something completely made up on top of it, something that could lean into the Shōgun craze while it was still hot.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Last '80s Newsletter (You'll Ever Need) to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.