'Redbelt' complex? Yes, it's Mamet

(B) Peer pressure is tough, especially when it's pervasive, grown-up and institutionalized. In samurai movies, as in Westerns, the warrior is often faced with a choice between individual morality and fealty to the tribe. Individual morality tends to prevail until society can be established and impose order, though in contemporary samurai movies, like Jim Jarmusch's excellent Ghost Dog, both choices can be rendered absurd by the circumstances.

By Carina Chocano

May 9, 2008