50 GREATEST FICTIONAL BADASSES

#18 – THE NAMELESS RONIN from Yojimbo.

As far as Akira Kurosawa films go, some prefer The Seven Samurai. I prefer Yojimbo. Nothing against The Seven Samurai (I’ll gladly sit and watch that), but Yojimbo is a fucking blast. It’s a sly satire on the Cold War, it’s a meditation on the passivity of civilized men. It’s also a fucking awesome tale where a lot of blood is spilled and limbs get lopped off.

This movie has been adapted several times, Clint Eastwood’s Fistful of Dollars, Walter Hill’s Last Man Standing, even The Road Warrior is a close cousin. A wandering killer comes to town and plays two warring clans against each other. Horrifying collateral damage follows.

The thing I love most about our nameless samurai is that he’s just the trickster avatar. He’s not interested in money, power or even the welfare of the civilians around him. He just wants to see how far he can take things. It’s like a private joke to him and it doesn’t matter if the world burns because of it. He’s kind of the Andy Kaufman of the bad-ass club. It’s a philosophy I subscribed to whole-heartedly in my 20s, only partially these days.

Here’s a youtube video with his kill count. Happy Saturday morning!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6gXTN8ru_U

The Ronin [after saving a family that is crying with gratitude]: “Stop. Stop crying. It’s pathetic. I hate pathetic people. I’ll have to kill you.”