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People today imagine silent viewers were better satisfied with less. In fact, the opposite was true. If we could sit for presentations the equal of what they had in 1924, I've no doubt a lot of us would find emotions turned loose in ways unexpected. My own (admittedly limited) experience with silent films and live orchestras are among my best remembered in theatres. Ben-Hur with seventy musicians once brought tears to these jaded eyes. Could I have stood such pounding on a weekly basis in palaces seating thousands, with dynamic accompaniment a commonplace? Likely I'd have sought therapy for an excess of bliss, for that is the only word I can summon for the movie going encounters those lucky people routinely had.
"Bantsuma: The Life of Tsumasaburo Bando is obligatory viewing for everyone interested in Japanese cinema," writes David Bordwell. "Not only does it handily trace Bando's remarkable career through stills, interviews, and surviving footage. It also supports something I've tried to show for some time: that the Japanese action cinema of the 1920s and 1930s was one of the most powerful and creative trends in world filmmaking".
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