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

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

(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.

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.