1. Siriben Somboon
Senior Seminar Period 3
Rashomon Essay
Rashomon is a Japanese crime film directed by Akira Kyrosawa which revolves
around a samurai’s death and the rape of samurai’s wife. The film opens on a woodcutter, a
priest and a commoner at the Rashomon gate. The story is about 4 witnesses – the bandit,
samurai’s wife, samurai (told through a spiritual possession) and the woodcutter. All four
stories vary in many ways but share some common details such as the raping of samurai’s
wife by the bandit and the samurai’s death. In the ending, it does not reveal who murders the
samurai; the audience is left with an open ending to judge what the truth is and who is telling
the truth. There are two individuals with contrasting view of truth and reality, Errol Morris
and Roger Ebert. Morris is an absolutist who believes that there is only one truth and truth is
objective. On the other hand, Ebert believes that truth is subjective and reality is based on the
individual’s interpretation. Although both critics are valid in their arguments, Morris’s view
of perception, there is only one truth, is more applicable in the film Rashomon.
Although Ebert’s view of truth is that truth is subjective and is based on individual’s
interpretation, is related to different approaches to the crime scene in Rashomon, there are
limitations to Ebert approach to reality. Ebert would believe that different version of the story
are caused by selectivity of perception, people choose what to see. Each character has its own
mental map which makes them have different version of the story. For example, according
to the bandit’s story, after the bandit has seduced the samurai’s wife, the wife begs the bandit
to duel to death with the samurai. However, according to the samurai’s story, after the bandit
raped his wife, he was given a choice between letting his wife go and killing her. Later the
samurai killed himself with his own dagger. The bandit’s mental map of reality may cause
2. him to view that he has no choice but to duel with the samurai because the samurai’s wife
begged him. The samurai may view that he doesn’t have a choice but to kill himself because
he cannot be with his wife (his wife going with the bandit or killing his wife). According to
independent testimony, all four stories do not coherence with each other which show that
perception may be fallible (Lagemaat). It is impossible to make all four stories true, so there
will be a lot of uncertainties if Ebert’s view of truth is being used.
On the other hand, Morris’s view of truth is absolute and there is only one truth. He
believes that “a truth for you, a truth for me” and how people see the world differently does
not mean that there is no reality (Morris). The reality is that there can be only one person who
killed the samurai with a dagger because there is only one dagger. Although people have
different stories, Morris would believe that the story may be true to the individual, but only
one person killed the samurai, which is the reality. According to Morris, if it is true that a
person killed the samurai, it becomes knowledge because he believes that there is only one
truth. So according to K=JTB equation, for Morris T=K. This contrasts with Plato’s view of
knowledge, that truth is independent and from his equation, K=JTB, individual cannot gain
knowledge if the individual does not believe that it is true and cannot justified it. However,
for Morris, truth does not have to be justified for it to become knowledge. For example,
Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave”, prisoners in the cave believed that the shadows formed
by people walking by is the reality. However when the prisoner got released, he went outside
the cave and found out that the shadows he saw in the cave is not the reality. This shows that
people can see the world differently, but this does not mean that there is no reality.
The film is based on eye witness testimonies of the characters. Eye witness testimony
does not give an accurate record of what people see. Memories are reconstructed all the time
and people do not get an accurate record. Similar to what Morris says that “people see the
world differently”, this makes the memory of the person different from another person
3. (Morris). He also says that “there is such a thing as truth, but we have a vested interest in not
seeing it, in avoiding it” (Morris). This shows how the characters have different version of
the same crime. There is a truth, but the characters choose to avoid it and memories are
reconstructed from pieces of information. The validity of truth for each character is affected
by independent testimony. If evidence hasn’t been confirmed by other people, it doesn’t
mean that there is no truth. Although people may not be able to get the ultimate reality of
who murdered the samurai from eye witness testimony, there is only one truth.
In conclusion, the film Rashomon shows four different versions of the same crime
which raises the question of what is the truth. Although Ebert points out that there is truth for
each individual, Morris idea of there is only one truth would best the story. According to
Morris, it is impossible for all four different versions of the crime to be true. How people
view the world is independent of the reality. By using Morris’s view of truth would have less
uncertainty compared to Ebert’s view of truth which brings the viewer closer to the reality.
4. Works Cited
Ebert, Roger. “Rashomon (1950)”. Rogerebert.com. Chicago Sun-Times. 26 May 2002. Web.
7 Mar. 2012.
Lagemaat van de, Richard. “Theory of Knowledge for the IB diploma”.
Cambridge University Press 2005. Print.
Morris, Errol. “The Interview by Morris”. The Believer. N.p. April 2004. Web.
24 February 2012.
