Mouly Surya’s film “Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts” may be set on an island in Indonesia, but she imbues the film with touches from Spaghetti Westerns.
In fact, the film hems so closely to the Western genre, from explicit nods to Ennio Morricone’s scores from Sergio Leone’s films, to vast shots of open desert and prairies and the title character Marlina emerging on the wavy horizon on horseback, Surya said she hopes Clint Eastwood might see her film and enjoy it.
“I would love to be there to see that,” Surya told TheWrap’s Beatrice Verhoeven Thursday as part of TheWrap’s Awards and Foreign Screening Series at the Landmark Theatres in Los Angeles. “Little by little it takes the shape of this Indonesian feminist Western, even if that doesn’t make sense because we’re not in the West.”
“Marlina the Murderer” tells the story of a woman living on the Indonesian island Sumba. Desperate for money and a way to bury her mother-in-law, Marlina invites a stranger named Markus into her home to help. But he reveals that he and six other men in his crew plan to not only take all her livestock, but also rape her. When Markus starts to take advantage of her, she manages to behead him with a machete and poison the rest.
But the film’s tone changes drastically between each of the four acts. It begins as something of a bloody, Tarantino-esque revenge fantasy, only to introduce some oddball comedy when Marlina decides to wrap her rapist’s head in a cloth and carry it with her to a police station in town. Amazingly, it’s something that doesn’t seem to faze her best friend or some of her neighbors. And by the film’s final act, Surya wanted to give the film an “operatic” feel that matches some of the finest Spaghetti Westerns.
“When I saw pictures of it for the first time, there was a picture of the savanna, and there’s horses. This is like Texas. It’s really Marlboro country,” Surya said. “You just need a cowboy in the middle of the picture.”
Surya explained that on an island like Sumba in Indonesia, rapes, murders and other crimes frequently go unreported, and the police, as in the film, are generally unhelpful and woefully under-equipped. As a result, people in these small, rural communities who live hours away from the nearest town or even restaurant (Surya said she found just four establishments while traveling and researching the island) often take matters into their own hands, with men carrying machetes wherever they go and women traveling with bags of food on long journeys. Amazingly, the original story was based on a man who witnessed a woman carrying a severed head with her through a marketplace.
“The social stigma in Indonesia is even worse. We are decades behind in terms of speaking up about this kind of crime,” Surya said. “If you’re on this island, you have to keep a weapon somewhere. It’s the Wild Wild East.”
All of the above fit the tone she was going for with “Marlina the Murderer,” making it into a feminist Spaghetti Western with a specifically Indonesian perspective. Surya was asked about why Marlina would keep poisonous berries hidden away in her vanity, and she explained it spoke to the film’s themes of women taking control.
“It’s saying something about having your weapon underneath your beauty in a way,” Surya said. “Women helping each other and supporting each other, that’s what I really wanted to convey because women supporting each other is the most beautiful relationship you can have.”
“Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts” is Indonesia’s entry into the Foreign Language Oscar race. It made its premiere as part of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Queer Palme. The film opened in New York on June 22 this year.
10 Westerns Inspired by Samurai Movies, from 'The Magnificent Seven' to 'A Fistful of Dollars' (Photos)
We finally got a glimpse of Shogun World in "Westworld," and the idea to mash up the two universes isn't just a coincidence. There's a long history of Westerns borrowing from samurai cinema and the other way around. Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa studied the work of director John Ford, which, in turn, led to many of Kurosawa's movies to be remade as Spaghetti Westerns. The cowboy and the samurai are each lone wanderers in a lawless world, so a crossover of themes is plausible. Here are 10 instances in which the West met the East.
HBO
"The Magnificent Seven" (1960) and "Seven Samurai" (1954)
Kurosawa's landmark film, "Seven Samurai," was highly influential on modern action cinema, but its most direct descendant was John Sturges' "The Magnificent Seven," starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and Eli Wallach. The film is a remake, but its representation of American ideals of heroism and underdog spirit have propelled it to become its own classic.
United Artists/Toho Company
"A Fistful of Dollars" (1964) and "Yojimbo" (1961)
Another Kurosawa remake, "Yojimbo" is about a mysterious, quiet and lone ronin who wanders into a small town and fights to end the warring between two rival gangs. And "A Fistful of Dollars," Sergio Leone's unauthorized remake, is literally the same thing. Clint Eastwood's scowling menace is to just about any Western what Toshiro Mifune's crazed intensity is to samurai movies. "Yojimbo" would also get a sequel, "Sanjuro," as would Eastwood's "Man With No Name" series in "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly."
United Artists/Toho Company
"Blindman" (1971) and "Adventures of Zatoichi" (1964)
Zatoichi is one of Japan's longest running samurai characters -- a blind warrior originally played by actor Shintaro Katsu -- who appeared in a total of 26 films and a subsequent TV series. The Spaghetti Western "Blindman" is likewise about a sightless hired gun inspired by the Zatoichi character. And the 17th film in the Zatoichi series would be directly remade as the Rutger Hauer action movie "Blind Fury."
Twentieth Century Fox/The Criterion Collection
"Unforgiven" (1992)
In 1992, Clint Eastwood deconstructed the genre that made him famous with "Unforgiven," a Western about a gunslinger forced to face his murderous past. Twenty-one years later, Lee Sung-il and Ken Watanabe turned "Unforgiven" into a samurai tale with the saga of an infamous warrior who wants to live in peace as samurai are apprehended in 19th century Japan.
Warner Bros.
"Red Sun" (1971)
Toshiro Mifune put forth one of his most famous performances in "The Seven Samurai," as did Charles Bronson in that film's remake, "The Magnificent Seven." "Red Sun" saw both actors -- and both genres -- collide, as an outlaw is forced to team up with a samurai to help recover a Japanese ambassador's gift from bandits who left the outlaw for dead.
National General Pictures
"Requiem for a Gringo" (1968) and "Harakiri" (1962)
Masaki Kobayashi's samurai classic is about an elder ronin who wishes to find an honorable place to kill himself. The Spaghetti Western is more gory and psychedelic, but is loosely based on "Harakiri."
Paradise Film Exchange/Signal International
"The 5-Man Army" (1969)
In this Spaghetti Western, Tetsuro Tamba plays a samurai who turns tricks and joins a posse of bandits that intends to rob a train filled with gold that's heading across the Mexican border.
MGM
"Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die!" (1968)
"Seven Samurai" star Tatsuya Nakadai shows off his skills with a machete instead of a sword as villain James Elfego, the leader of the Comanchero gang, in this Spaghetti Western.
Cinerama Releasing Company
"Django" (1966)
While not a direct remake of "Yojimbo," the Spaghetti Western classic "Django" starring Franco Nero is another story of a lone gunslinger taking on two warring gangs.
Anchor Bay Entertainment
"Sukiyaki Western Django" (2007)
Takashi Miike's stylized samurai action movie is a stylized, East meets West homage to Spaghetti Westerns that even stars Quentin Tarantino -- who has borrowed liberally from both Westerns and Japanese cinema in his own films -- in a small role.
First Look International
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Akira Kurosawa’s films inspired some of the most iconic Westerns ever made
We finally got a glimpse of Shogun World in "Westworld," and the idea to mash up the two universes isn't just a coincidence. There's a long history of Westerns borrowing from samurai cinema and the other way around. Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa studied the work of director John Ford, which, in turn, led to many of Kurosawa's movies to be remade as Spaghetti Westerns. The cowboy and the samurai are each lone wanderers in a lawless world, so a crossover of themes is plausible. Here are 10 instances in which the West met the East.