1. Robin F. Solomon
Senior Seminar P.8
September 19, 2010
Truth and Perception, Rashamon
Essay Question : To what extent do you agree with the views of either Errol
Morris or Roger Ebert with regard to their views of truth and perception in the
film Rashomon?
The movie Rashomon is a 1950 dramatic crime mystery film directed by
Japanese film maker Akira Kurosawa . The movie had introduced Kurosawa to
spread Japanese film making to the western audiences at that time. The movie
depicts a woman that has been raped and the death of her Samurai husband. The
story explores the eyewitness accounts and it is shown through a flashback of
the following four characters, The Bandit, the wife of the Samurai, the murdered
samurai and the woodcutter. Errol Morris believes that the film is not about the
subjectivity of truth and in the film the witness is covering up for another person
to make himself look good. Errol Morris and Roger Ebert views of truth and
perception in the film Rashomon represents confirmation bias, visual perception
and point of view.
Errol Morris views on the film Rashomon does depicts confirmation bias
because evidence is only noticeable to things that support our beliefs.
Confirmation bias is a concept of selective thinking where one tends to believe in
their own beliefs and they ignore the value of those whose ideas are
contradictory to theirs. For example, according to the woodcutters story, he
explained to the commoner that the samurais story was a lie. He originally
witnessed the rape and murder and therefore he didn’t want to get too involved
during the trial.
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2. In addition to confirmation bias, the film also supports his view on visual
perceptions such as Eye Witness Testimony. When it comes to criminal trials,
eyes witness testimony indeed does act as a big role because certain evidence
could determine if someone is pledged guilty or not. In the movie, the wife’s
story is that the bandit abandoned her after she gets raped. She asks her
husband for forgiveness. She then freed him and begged him to kill her so that
she would be at peace. He continued to stare at her with a look of loathing. His
expression disturbed her so much that she fainted with dagger in hand. She
awoke to find her husband dead with the dagger in his chest. She attempted to
kill herself, but failed in all her efforts.
However, Roger Ebert supports a different view. He explains that since
1950, flashbacks have been a common method to express what might have
happened before. The showing of flashbacks might not agree with any objective
reality. When viewers see flashbacks in films, it is assumed that it reflect truth
and in actuality it just reflects point of view and that could be lied about. In the
film Rashomon, all of the flashbacks could be both true and false.
In conclusions both veiws of Roger Ebert and Errol Morris could be
supported in various ways. For example, the film depicted their views in visual
perceptions, confirmation bias and also point of view.
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