“Never more blood drenched the boulevard to Hell!” screamed the original English-language press kit for this “manga-existential masterwork” (Village Voice), which does to the good-guy samurai legend what The Searchers did to the John Wayne cowboy mythos. Its protagonist Ryunosuke Tsukue (Tatsuya Nakadai) is a strange samurai hero: murdering a helpless old man, dishonoring a woman, he couldn't care less about morality or equality, his only emotion a smile as he thinks of battles, death, and a possible duel with his rival Shimada (Toshiro Mifune). Making De Niro's Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver) look like Richard Simmons, the unearthly Nakadai is psychosis crystallized, and teams with director Okamoto to present a man, and a culture, diseased. An inspiration for Peckinpah, Tarantino, and countless others, Okamoto's vision of extreme, stylized violence is showcased in the film's justifiably famous battle scenes, unforgettably shot by the brilliant Hiroshi Murai in a fury of claustrophobic facial close-ups and whirling wide-angle swordplay.