The leading scorer in NBA history traces his journey from basketball superstar to writer and cultural critic with filmmaker Philip Kaufman, in a conversation that touches on sports, jazz, and the moral stakes of samurai movies.
The athlete and author on a lifetime of moviegoing
Directed by John Ford • 1939 • United States
This is where it all started. John Ford's smash hit and enduring masterpiece STAGECOACH revolutionized the western, elevating it from B movie to the A-list and establishing the genre as we know it today. The quintessential tale of a group of strange...
Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1954 • Japan
One of the most thrilling movie epics of all time, Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire the eponymous warriors to protect them from invading bandits. This three-hour ride f...
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi • 1962 • Japan
Following the collapse of his clan, an unemployed samurai (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the manor of Lord Iyi, begging to be allowed to commit ritual suicide on the property. Iyi’s clansmen, believing the desperate ronin is merely angling for a new po...
ZATOICHI #1
Directed by Kenji Misumi • 1962 • Japan
The epic saga of Zatoichi begins. As tensions mount between rival yakuza clans, one boss hires a formidable but ailing ronin as his clan's muscle, while the other employs a humble, moral blind masseur named Ichi. With its lightning-fast swordpl...
Directed by Kenji Misumi • 1972 • Japan
The inaugural film in the Lone Wolf and Cub series immediately thrust Itto Ogami into the ranks of the all-time great samurai movie icons. In this installment, the Shadow Yagyu clan plots to solidify its power by taking Ogami's coveted position of shogun's...
