The Wind and the Lion

  Last night, I watched "The Wind and the Lion" (1975, USA, Japanese subtitles, recorded on an external hard drive connected to an AQUOS, broadcast on NHK BS "Premium Cinema" on September 30, 2025).

 President Roosevelt looked exactly like the real thing. I didn't take notes, but there were many great quotes. 

 The president was strangely pro-Japanese, practicing archery and judo and praising the evil spiritualism of Admiral Togo Heihachiro, but it was his strong leadership and negotiating skills (political and diplomatic skills) at the Portsmouth Conference (and the process of setting it up) that allowed Japan to "win" the Russo-Japanese War.

 At first, I thought the attitude of the widowed mother and her two children was due to "Stockholm syndrome," but I later realized that this was not necessarily the case (I think the impression will vary depending on the viewer).

 In the opening scene (where an American home is attacked by a group of brutal outlaws, apparently based on a real incident that occurred in 1904), they seem like an outrageous bunch, but as we watch, the relationships between diplomats, the military, and politicians, American electoral democracy, the intentions of European powers seeking colonial domination, and the pre-modern (but still unchanged today) mixture of hereditary rule by charismatic religious figures and tribal politics all become intricately intertwined, making it difficult to know which side is right.

 This is probably one of the messages the filmmakers are trying to convey. It's also one of the reasons why American films are so interesting.

 The horse battles are also impressive. The star actors are really riding horses, and the scenes of intense horse battles, falls, and horse toppling are very impressive. This is one of the highlights of American films made from before the war until around the 1970s. Filming such scenes would probably be extremely difficult today. 

 In modern times, if a leading actor becomes injured and is unable to perform in the middle of filming, the losses can be enormous (in the past, it might have been possible to get away with it by saying, "Professional actors shouldn't complain," or "Injuries are part of a stuntman's job," but that's no longer the case), and I think the horses are a major issue.

 Many horses must have been injured during the filming of old Westerns, but it was practically impossible, both in terms of financial cost and effort, to treat them at a veterinary clinic and continue to raise them as pets, like dogs and cats, so the injured horses had no choice but to be put down. There's no way a rancher would lend out a horse that was good enough to be used as a stud for the filming of a horse race. Regardless of whether the horse meat could be sold, it's practically impossible to keep an injured horse alive. Even the very wealthy wouldn't be so compassionate in "raising" them. 

 In this respect, it's the same as racehorses in horse racing. Horses that are injured and can no longer run are put down.

 While this may have been a common sentiment in the past, in modern times, especially in developed countries, with increasing social and political pressure from animal rights groups, it seems difficult to use horses in filming as disposable objects.

 Right now, it's sports day season in Japanese villages. While it has nothing to do with the film mentioned above, I used to hate the horse-riding battles that teachers forced me to participate in at my elementary school (all boys were required to participate).

 The issue of horse-riding battles at sports days during Japan's totalitarian forced labor mobilization, like the "group gymnastics" issue and the "follow the crowd" issue, is a topic I'll discuss separately at some point, as it clearly illustrates the unique characteristics of Japanese villages and the true nature of the Japanese people.

"Stockholm Syndrome"

 Amid extreme fear and anxiety, this psychological mechanism leads people to feel empathy, sympathy, and even gratitude toward the perpetrator who holds their life in their hands. 

 This is thought to be a psychological defense mechanism in which victims seek to achieve emotional stability by building a psychological connection with the perpetrator.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind_and_the_Lion

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_viento_y_el_le%C3%B3n

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Lion_et_le_Vent

Der Wind und der Löwe