Stay after the film for a discussion led by beloved Rollins College Professor Emeritus Socky O’Sullivan!

A former teamster, jail guard, and Nashville pub owner, Maurice “Socky” O’Sullivan, Kenneth Curry Professor of Literature Emeritus at Rollins, is an award-winning teacher, editor, columnist, and filmmaker. Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood offers him a chance to bring together his love of Shakespeare, film, and Enzian. In addition to teaching Rollins’ first film course and classes on Shakespeare on film, he created the world’s first film festival course at the Florida Film Festival, a course he and Denise Cummings have offered for almost two decades. 

Although receiving mixed reviews after its premiere, Throne of Blood is widely regarded today as the finest adaptation of the play and one of the finest film versions of the Scottish play. In addition to discussing the film on its own merits, it raises important questions about cultural appropriation, Japan’s reflections on World War II, and any adaptation’s relationship with and responsibility to its original.

Throne of Blood:
Returning to their lord’s castle, samurai warriors Washizu (Toshirô Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki) are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit’s prophecy comes true, Washizu’s scheming wife, Asaji (Isuzu Yamada), presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit’s prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa’s resetting of William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.