Alejandro G. Iñárritu's 21 Grams: my breakdown of the film

My breakdown of Alejandro G. Iñárritu's 21 Grams

I want to share my thoughts on 21 Grams, the 2003 American drama directed by Alexandro Inarritu Gonzales starring Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio del Toro, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. First, though, I’d like to thank you for watching this video and I’d appreciate if you’d hit the like button at the end and subscribe to my channel for more videos.

Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu's 2003 drama 21 Grams is the 2nd film to Gonzales’ and co-writer Guillermo Arriaga’s “Trilogy of Death” series preceded by 2001s Amores Perros and followed by 2006s Babel starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. The title of this film comes from an American Scientist named Duncan MacDougall. In 1907 MacDougall wanted to prove that we lose 21 grams at the time of death and that this 21 grams is the soul leaving the body. He weighed 6 bodies at the moment of death and only 1 lost 21 grams, 21.3 to be exact. Needless to say, his test was discounted by the scientific community.

In this film, 21 Grams is a metaphor for all the things that have to happen for 2 people to come together; 21 Grams is about how we are all connected; it’s about water and the many chances that we get to live; 21 Grams is about learning to accept the bad things that happen to all of us. Most of all, 21 Grams it’s about learning to see life as a blessing and not as a guarantee.

Life, death, and rebirth

Everything in nature has an opposite: 2 legs, 2 arms, 2 eyes. There’s light and darkness, hot and cold, weak and strong, male/female, left and right.

In 21 Grams, life and death complement each other. 

For instance, Mary goes to a fertility doctor to have the child of her dying husband; when Michael dies his heart gives Paul a 2nd chance to live; Paul is dying in the hospital when Cristina learns that she is pregnant with his child; and Michael and his daughters are run over and killed by Jack whose birthday happens to be on that same day.

Life creates death and death creates life as Socrates put it, in question and answer form, from Plato’s book Phaedo: 

Question: “Is not death opposed to life?”

Answer: “Yes.”

Question: “And they are generated one from the other?”

Answer: “Yes.”

Question: ”What is generated from life?”

Answer: “Death.”
Question: “And what from death?”

Answer: “I can only say in answer -- life.” 

Question: “Then the living, whether things or persons, Cebes, are generated from the dead?”

Answer: “That is clear,” he replied. 

Water

We’ve all heard the saying: “cleanliness is next to godliness,” right? Nothing feels better than having a clean fresh home, clean clothes, a clean car--but none of these are possible without good clean water. But let’s think of water and clean in another sense. In the Bible, water is used to symbolize death and rebirth in the rite of baptism--death in that the person baptized has all of his or her prior sins erased (or washed) and starts over with a clean slate. This is described as being “born again,” not in the literal sense, but in that the individual has been awakened to a higher realm of consciousness. This is why water, in this sense, is an important thematic element in 21 Grams. 

Let’s start with the characters’ names and how they relate to the film’s plot. Jordan--Jack’s last name--is the river in the Bible that Joshua crosses in leading the Israelites to the Promised Land; the connotation of Jack’s last name also coincides with his character arc. Jack’s “Promised Land” is him receiving a higher level of awareness: 

He starts out believing that God favors him because he got out of prison, stopped drinking alcohol, and turned his life over to Jesus Christ. Religious icons such as crosses fill his truck and home for protection. He and his family attend church regularly; he is even working with a troubled teenager named Nick. But when Jack kills Cristina’s family by running over them in his truck, he undergoes a spiritual shakeup. How could something bad happen to him when he was doing everything right? How could God allow him to get in his truck and kill a man and 2 little girls? Killing Cristina’s family and losing everything humbles Jack and teaches him that doing all the right things (including being a Christian) does not exclude him from all the ups and downs of life. 

Likewise, the death of Christina’s husband and 2 daughters catches her completely off-guard. Prior to giving birth to her 1st daughter, Cristina had kicked her quit using drugs and had become the perfect wife and mother. But losing Michael and her 2 daughters so suddenly is too much for her and she goes back to her drug habit. She then decides to kill Jack instead of moving on with her life and pressures Paul, who has her husband’s heart, to help her. Paul goes back to smoking which ruins his new heart. When all of the dust has settled by the end of the movie, Cristina finds out that she is pregnant with Paul’s baby and winds up in the same position she was in before, when she faced the decision to either stop using drugs or to keep using them and risk losing Paul’s unborn child.

Finally, Paul gets a 2nd chance at life by receiving Michael’s heart. But after meeting Cristina and her pressuring him to kill Jack, Paul goes back to his old smoking habit which makes his new heart go bad. His failing heart is the swimming pool he sits by at the motel; notice that the swimming pool is empty and full of garbage; his decision to help Cristina kill Jack has poisoned Michael’s good heart. Paul doesn’t go through with killing Jack but by this time, Michael’s heart is too far gone to be brought back. 

When we hurt others we hurt ourselves

We don’t get away with anything. When we hurt others, everything in the universe aligns itself to keep us from being happy. Some call this God, others call it karma. There are invisible laws within us that punish us when we go against them, rising up like judge, jury, and executioner to torment us.

In 21 Grams, for instance, Paul returns to smoking when he goes in with Cristina to kill Jack. In doing this, he not only hurts himself, he also hurts Michael who continues to live on through the heart his death has given to Paul; likewise, Cristina’s drug habit not only threatens her health but also the life of her unborn child; also, after Jack completes his prison sentence for killing Cristina’s family, he abandons his own family to wallow in guilt by himself in a motel where he goes back to drinking and smoking cigarettes.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people

Life is not fair. Good people die young and bad people die of old age; fit people get cancer; selfish jerks win lotteries and good people die poor; abusers get the best girls and good guys get the cold shoulder; heroes don’t always ride off into the sunset and, contrary to popular belief, hard work doesn’t always pay off. The fact of the matter is that bad things happen to good people, too.

Likewise, in 21 Grams Jack does all the right things

• He attends church
• He has given up drinking alcohol
• He works with a troubled teenager
• He follows the Bible to the letter

And yet, he gets into his truck on a normal day, sober, feeling better about the future and getting a new job after getting fired and, out of nowhere, he ends up running over 3 people in his truck, panics, and leaves the scene of the incident!

     

Same thing with Cristina who also does all the right things by kicking drugs and becoming the ideal wife and mother. Yet, in a single moment, she loses everything!

Taking life for granted

Some things are just too unpleasant to think about. But death is always going to be a fact of life. From the day we are born our days are numbered. But somewhere along the way we forget how to live and settle for being alive. We learn to look forward to and place special value on birthdays, anniversaries, Valentines Days, and Christmases and we learn to take the smaller bits of our lives--the seconds, hours, days, and months--for granted like that old friend who you know will always be there. Then 1 day someone calls you out the blue to tell you your old friend is dead. Such is the case throughout 21 Grams:

When Michael, before being killed, tells his wife that he and their daughters will see her when they get home

When Michael calls Cristina who lets his last phone call go to her voice mail

When Cristina puts off buying the blue shoes her daughter wants

When Mary aborts Paul’s child and then--when he has only 1 month to live--tries to have his child through artificial insemination

When Jack kills a man and 2 little girls driving home to celebrate his birthday

We all put things off as if we can pause life like a television show and come back to it later. In the meantime we miss out on the small moments as if they are not important, as if they are a given, as if they somehow don’t count; they do!

conclusion

21 Grams begins and ends with Paul Rivers in a hospital bed connected to life support, counting each and every breath, marking time and empty space like seconds on a clock, not knowing which will be his last. But, in a sense, Paul is more alive on his deathbed than at any point in the film, even after getting a new life with Michael’s heart. I wonder, how we would live each and every moment of our lives if we realized that each one of those tiny moments had the potential to be our last.

My reaction to the Alita, Battle Angel trailer

My reaction to the Alita, Battle Angel trailer 

In this video I will share my thoughts on Alita, Battle Angel which is slated for theaters in July 2018 co written by James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez and directed by Robert Rodriguez based on the 1990 manga Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro. Alita, Battle Angel takes place in a futuristic wasteland and follows a cyborg girl named Alita whose head is discovered among a pile of garbage beneath a floating utopia called Tiphares. Alita is adopted by a cyber doctor named Ido who gives her a new body but is unable to help her remember who she is. Her only connection with her past is a fighting style called Panzer Kunzt. Over the course of her journey to find out who and what she is she finds herself and, ultimately, love. This is the film Cameron intended to direct before Avatar. In a nutshell, think Mad Max meets The Bourne Identity.

Battle Angel Alita finally!!

Battle Angel Alita at last!!!

Finally, at long long last, we'll finally get the movie that James Cameron made Avatar to prepare for, from the manga series by graphic artist Yukito Kishiro about a cyborg who has no memory of her past except for a deadly fighting style called Panzer Kunst. From seeing the film's trailer, I believe that Rodriguez will pull this off well.

Blue Velvet analysis

One of the greatest films ever that Roger Ebert didn't like! 

Blue Velvet by David Lynch: An analysis of the film

Blue Velvet is a 1986 murder mystery film by director David Lynch about a quiet suburban community whose dark secrets come to light with the discovery of a severed ear. The film stars Kyle McLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern, and Dennis Hopper. Blue Velvet received numerous accolades including a Best Director nomination for David Lynch and Best Director and Actor awards for Lynch and Dennis Hopper from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. In this video, I will explore some of the key ideas in Blue Velvet to the best of my ability. Thanks for watching this video and I’d appreciate it if you will like this video and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one. I’ll begin with the Closet. 

The closet

The closet in Dorothy’s apartment symbolizes the social and moral restrictions we impose on ourselves and restrictions that are imposed on us externally. From the closet looking out, Jeff is able to safely and privately act out his fantasies through Frank who gets off on deviant sex with Dorothy. The closet also represents the outsider’s perspective. To Jeff, Dorothy—from his side of the closet door—looks like a victim; this is how a woman being beaten by a man is perceived in his world. But when Jeff comes out of the closet and into Dorothy’s world, he learns that the world he sees from the closet isn’t black and white. That Dorothy is not a victim but that she is a willing participant. And this is also what turns Jeff on about her. Sandy is also limited by her subjective views of her world. To her, Jeff seems as normal and ordinary as the town of Lumberton until he comes out of the closet when Dorothy brings their secret relationship to the light. 

Dorothy making Jeff strip out of his clothes is also symbolic. His clothes, or outward appearance, is his image and how he wants to be seen by Sandy and others in the community. Dorothy getting him to strip out of his clothes is getting him to reveal who he really is, not only to society but to himself as well. In the perfect and narrow world of Lumberton, Jeff is restricted; but in Dorothy’s apartment where there are no taboos, he is free to be himself. Watching the sadistic things Frank does to Dorothy, he is actually, through Frank, acting out some of his own fantasies which is why he submits to Dorothy’s request to hit her. Their relationship is all about her getting him to come out of the closet, so to speak. 

Lumberton

Lumberton’s squeaky-clean appearance is a mask for drugs, murder, crooked cops, and perverts like Frank and Dorothy. And taking off the city’s mask also exposes Jeff’s secrets as well. But in order for Jeff to expose Lumberton’s secrets he has to let go of all of his inhibitions and the mores of the community he grew up in. Sandy represents this community and also why Jeff can’t reveal his secrets to her but can with Dorothy. This is also why he must go up to Dorothy’s apartment alone; if Sandy had gone up with him he wouldn’t have revealed himself as he does with Dorothy. He would have remained hidden and locked up within himself by the informal norms of his community. This point is demonstrated when Sandy sees Jeff and Dorothy together. He is ashamed and denies Dorothy’s claim that they are lovers.

Voyeurism

Voyeurism is watching and getting off from seeing others experience pleasure or pain. In Blue Velvet, Jeffery plays the role of a detective trying to solve a murder mystery, a mystery which is also tied to discovering things about himself. When Dorothy orders him to strip out of his clothes she is really telling him to let go of his inhibitions. This is why fear is such an important element of the film. What keeps us from expressing ourselves is what we think of other people’s opinions. This is why Jeff feels free to express himself in the privacy and safety of Dorothy’s apartment. This element of privacy and safety is also reinforced by the fact that Jeff sees her at night, night being a metaphor for not only mystery but also for secrecy which is why she calls him her ‘secret lover.’ 

Besides privacy, Dorothy helps Jeff come out of the closet by giving him 2 things, and those 2 things are the proper environment and consent. The 1st is her place which, in this film, seems like a totally different world than Lumberton and its restrictive norms. In her apartment it’s ok for Jeff to admit to things that are taboo in society. The second condition Dorothy provides for Jeff is consent by giving him permission to hit her. The commentary Blue Velvet makes is that we are only as good or as bad as the laws and norms allows us to be. This commentary is also the premise of 2 previous analyses I covered in the film Full Metal Jacket and the 1st episode of Mad Men. 

The 2nd half of Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 film ‘Full Metal Jacket’ follows a group of soldiers who are liberated by the battlefield of the Vietnam War and revel in killing. In the 1st episode of Mad Men, bad behavior on the part of White men is proper behavior in the confines of the striptease bar. 

These are some of my thoughts on David Lynch’s 1986 film Blue Velvet. 

Film Summary of Blue Velvet by director David Lynch

Film Summary of Blue Velvet by David Lynch

The film Blue Velvet begins In a small, picturesque city in North Carolina called Lumberton, Mr. Beaumont is watering his lawn and suddenly falls down holding the left side of his head. Simultaneously, bugs devour a severed left ear in an empty field.

Jeffrey Beaumont comes home from school (out of state) to visit his father who’s in the hospital after suffering a stroke. His father tries to say something to Jeffrey but can’t because of the trachea in his throat. Walking home from the hospital, Jeffrey finds a human ear in a vacant field and takes it to Detective Williams at the Lumberton, North Carolina Police Department. The coroner tells the detective that the ear was cut with a pair of scissors. 

Jeff leaves home for a late night stroll, unable to get the severed ear off his mind. Later, Detective Williams tells Jeff that he think he’s found something and tells Jeff not to tell anybody about the ear.  

Later, Jeff runs into the detective’s daughter Sandy. They take a stroll. Her room is by her father’s and she overheard him talking about the ear, connecting it with a singer named Dorothy Vallens who lives near the field where Jeff found the ear. The cops have Dorothy under surveillance. Sandy takes Jeff to the building where Dorothy lives on the 7th floor. 

Jeff picks Sandy up from school to talk to her. He takes her to a restaurant and there, says to her: “There are opportunities to gain knowledge and experience.” 

He asks Sandy to help him. He’ll disguise himself as pest control to gain access to her apartment. After he’s up there for 3 minutes, he needs Sandy to come up and knock on Dorothy’s door as a Jehovah’s Witness. This distraction will allow him to open a window to enter the apartment later after Dorothy leaves.

Sandy agrees to this and Jeff gets out of the car and takes the building’s fire escape up to Dorothy’s apartment. She answers the door in a red dress and lets him in. He begins spraying in the kitchen, around the baseboards as slow as possible to case out the windows. Someone knocks on the door and Dororthy opens it; it’s not Sandy! A man in a yellow jacket steps in and locks eyes with Jeff for a moment before stepping out into the hall with Dorothy. Jeff takes a set of keys off a hook under the kitchen counter and finishes up the job.

Back in his car, he tells Sandy that he plans on sneaking into Dorothy’s apartment tonight. He asks Sandy for her help and she agrees to, promising to break a date with her boyfriend Michael,  whom she loves. 

Jeff and Sandy go by the Slow Club where Dorothy Vallens sings ‘Blue Velvet.’ Her red lipstick is popping under the blue light. Jeff seems captivated. 

He and Sandy leave the club and go to Dorothy’s house. Sandy has cold feet and refuses to go into Dorothy’s apartment. Sandy decides to stay and honk 3 times when she sees Dorothy come home. 

Sandy: “I don’t know if you’re a detective or a pervert.” 

Jeff: “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

He goes up to Dorothy’s apartment and uses the key he stole from her. The rooms are dark.

Sandy sounds the horn 3 times when she sees Dorothy and a man pull up to the apartment. Jeff flushes the toilet and doesn’t hear the horn. He does, however, hear the keys in the front door. He hides in the closet and peeks out to see Dorothy undressing. The phone rings and she answers it, begging to speak with her son. Later, she puts on her blue velvet housecoat, goes to the kitchen, comes back with a butcher knife, and orders Jeff to come out the closet. He comes out apologizing.

He just wanted to see her. She makes him strip and gives him oral pleasure. She asks him if he likes it and he says yes. She makes him lie on the couch and kisses him. Someone knocks at the door and he goes back into the closet. Dorothy lets Frank in and he tells her to shut up and call him ‘Daddy.’

Frank tells her to open her legs as he takes a deep pull from an inhaler. He calls her mommy in a baby voice and asks for some blue velvet. She stuffs his mouth with her blue velvet house coat. He chokes her, then throws her to the floor. He takes out a pair of scissors and cuts a small patch off of her robe. He mounts her and, afterwards, punches her in the face for looking at him. He finally leaves the apartment and Jeff comes out of the closet to assist Dorothy to the couch. She begs him to stay and they kiss. She calls him Don and asks him to hit her; he doesn’t. On his way out, he sees a picture of her husband and their son.

Jeff tells Sandy about everything that happened last night at Dorthy’s place. "It’s a strange world,” he says. He believes that Frank is holding Dorothy’s husband and son hostage to make her indulge his sexual fantasies.

Sandy had a dream the night she met Jeff. The dream starts off dark because there aren’t any Robbins but all of a sudden thousands of Robbins are set free and to bring love to the world. 

Jeff visits Dorothy and she tells him that she had looked for him in her closet. They kiss.

At the Slow Club later, Dorothy is on stage singing Blue Velvet. Jeff is there and sees Frank with a patch of the blue velvet patch he’d cut from Dorothy’s housecoat. Frank and several men leave the club and get into a car. Jeff follows them to a warehouse. 

The next day, he picks up Sandy at school. Mike, Sandy’s boyfriend, is playing football nearby and sees Sandy get into Jeff’s car. At a restaurant, Jeff tells Sandy what he saw at the warehouse. That he saw a man in a yellow jacket and Frank come out of the building with a well-dressed man carrying an alligator briefcase. They got into a car and he followed them to a factory downtown. Not far from this factory, the police find a dead man in an apartment and a woman with a broken leg on the sidewalk.

Sandy is amazed and asks Jeff why he’s putting himself in danger and going back to see Dorothy. She feels guilty because she got him into this and feels responsible. He tells Sandy that he’s compelled to do so and that he’s seeing something that was always hidden. He’s involved in a mystery and he tells Sandy that she, too, is a mystery. They kiss.

Dorothy lets Jeff into her apartment and they kiss and make love. She asks him to hurt her. He tries to switch the subject and she pushes him off of her. He finally gives in and hits her hard in the face. He strikes her again and they make love. Afterwards, she tells him that his disease is inside of her and calls him her special friend.

Frank and his crew arrive at Dorothy’s apartment as Jeff is leaving. Frank takes Jeff and Dorothy to see Ben at a club called ‘This is it.’ 

A middle-aged man with his face powdered up like a woman orders one of the fat women sitting on the sofa to bring beers for Frank and the others. Frank calls Ben ‘Suave’ and punches Jeff in the face. Then, Ben punches Jeff in the stomach. Frank follows Ben into another room and Ben gives Frank a wad of money, a scrip of paper, and puts a pill in Frank’s mouth. Frank tells Ben that Gordon, a cop, had killed and robbed a drug dealer in broad daylight.

Frank orders one of his men to let Dorothy see her son in another room. Ben starts lip-syncing to a Roy Orbison’s song called ‘In dreams.’

Frank turns off the radio and orders everyone out for a joy ride. He tells Ben that he’ll see him Tuesday. 

Dorothy is in the front seat beside Frank who is driving. He stops the car when he sees her looking at Jeff in the back seat. He draws off his inhaler and starts groping Dorothy. Jeffrey punches Frank in the nose. Frank and his boys drag Jeff out the car where Frank punches him to the tune of Roy Orbison’s ‘In Dreams’ while the fat girl they brought along dances nearby. Frank tells Jeff to stay away from Dorothy. Jeff passes out and when he wakes up the next morning everyone is gone. 

Jeff calls Sandy to tell her that he has some info for her father.

At the police station, Jeff sees the man with the yellow jacket behind a desk. The name plate on the desk says Gordon, the name Frank mentioned to Ben who robbed and mudered a drug dealer. Jeff shows pictures he had taken of Frank and his crew and Gordon to Detective Williams.

Jeff stops by the hospital to see his father. On Friday, Jeff goes by Sandy’s house to pick her up for a date and Gordon is there also because he and Detective Williams are taking their wives out.

Jeff and Sandy attend a party. As he is driving her home a car follows them to Jeff’s house— it’s Sandy’s boyfriend Mike itching to fight. Dorothy comes out of Jeff’s house naked and bloody. Jeff and Sandy help Dorothy in the car and drive away with Dorothy clinging to Jeff’s arm. 

Jeff takes Dorothy to Sandy’s house. Sandy looks hurt and confused as she watches Jeff with Dorothy’s face very close to his asking him where he’s been (Dorothy naked is a metaphor for the truth about Jeff coming to light) and calling him her secret lover. Jeff looks embarrassed. Sandy’s mother calls the police and an ambulance. Dorothy tells Jeff that she loves him, then she tells Sandy and her mother that Jeff put his disease inside of her. Mother and daughter have stunned looks on their faces. Jeff shakes his head as if to say “No, I didn’t, baby.” Sandy asks him what’s going on. Again, Dorothy tells Sandy that Jeff put his disease in her. 

An ambulance arrives for Dorothy and Sandy slaps Jeff. 

Later, they talk on the phone and she forgives him for lying to her. But he has to go back to Dorothy’s place because she is in danger. Sandy hangs up the phone and says, “Where’s my dream?” 

Jeff uses his key to enter Dorothy’s apartment. Gordon and Don are there but dead from being tortured. Elsewhere, Detective Williams raids Frank’s place. Jeff leaves Dorothy apartment as Frank, disguised in a fake mustache and carrying a lizard-skin briefcase, is coming up the fire escape. Jeff rushes back into the apartment, and uses Gordon’s radio to let the police know where Frank is.

Frank enters the apartment with his gun, takes off the wig and mustache, and follows the sound of the police radio to the bedroom. The instant he kicks down the door, Jeff comes out the closet, takes the pistol off Gordon’s dead body, and returns to the closet. Frank comes out of bedroom, draws off of his inhaler, and approaches the closet. When he opens the door, Jeff shoots him in the head. Jeff and Sandy enter the apartment. 

Later, the apartment is swarming with police. Sandy kisses Jeff. 

Epilogue:

Jeff is laid out in a lawn chair under a bright blue sky. Sandy calls him inside for lunch. A Robin is perched on the windowsill with a bug in its mouth—the nightmare’s over. Film ends the way it began, with daffodils, white picket fences, roses, blue skies. Dorothy and her son embrace on a park bench.

The Art of War in Akira Kurosawa's 'Sanjuro'

In this video, I will analyze Akira Kurosawa’s 1962 film Sanjuro through the writings of Sun Tzu and his book ‘The Art of War’. Thanks for watching this video and please subscribe and leave a like at the end.

Sanjuro is told in 2 parts with the main character acting as both a teacher and as a student. In the beginning, Sanjuro acts as teacher to 9 young Samurais. The 1st lesson he teaches them is to not judge a book by its cover. The young samurais are fed up with government corruption and take a petition to weed out wrongdoing to their chamberlain. But when this chamberlain who happens to be ugly rejects their petition, they go to the superintendent whose good looks makes him seem truthful. He instructs all of them to wait for him at a local shrine. Luckily, Sanjuro happens to be sleeping at the shrine and overhears them. He warns the young men that the superintendent is setting a trap to kill them all. At first, they don’t believe him because his socks are full of holes and he looks like a beggar. He tells them to take a peek out the window and when they do they see men with swords surrounding the place. Sanjuro gets them out of this jam by trickery and decides to help them rescue the chamberlain, his wife, and daughter who have been kidnapped by the superintendent. 

The 2nd aspect of the film’s plot involves Sanjuro becoming a student to a  wise soft-spoken woman who teaches him how to conquer his enemies—and even make those enemies allies— without drawing his sword. 

The Art of War chapter 3, Attack by stratagem  using the sheathed sword:

Sun Tzu: 

“In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them. Hence, to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”

The Art of War Chapter 9, The Army on the March

To smoke out the chamberlain’s supporters who remain anonymous, the superintendent comes up with a plan to use the chamberlain’s empty palanquin as bait. The samurais will take the bait by believing they are rescuing their chamberlain and be caught. As planned, the samurai see the empty palanquins and prepare to rescue their chamberlain. Again, Sanjuro is with them and they ignore his warning. He warns them again. They tell him to be quiet and at this precise moment a large number of guards arrive on horseback to assist the superintendent. Sun Tzu:

“If his place of encampment is easy of access, he is tendering a bait.”

The guards are friends of the superintendent and came to escort the palanquins through the woods. Sun Tzu:

“He who exercises no forethought but makes light of his opponents is sure to be captured by them.”

The Art of War CHAPTER 2, WAGING WAR 

Early in the film, Sanjuro and the young Samurais rescue the chamberlain’s daughter and wife and take 1 of Muroto’s guards as a hostage. When the guard refuses to tell them where the superintendent is hiding the chamberlain, Sanjuro orders the samurais to kill the guard. The chamberlain’s wife, however, tells Sanjuro that he mustn’t kill the guard. Sun Tzu: 

“Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy.”

They detain the guard in a closet at Izaki’s house. After being saved again by Sanjuro, the young samurais return to the house and find the guard out of the closet, eating, drinking sake, and wearing Izaki’s best kimono. The old woman let him out the closet, fed him, and gave him Izaki’s kimono. The guard could have easily escaped before the Samurais returned but he stayed their prisoner because the old lady was kind to him and trusted him. Prior to being captured, the guard had heard stories about how cruel the young samurais were and found those stories to be false. After telling the samurais this, the guard finishes his food, his sake, and returns to the closet. Sun Tzu: 

“Captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept. This is called, using the conquered foe to augment one's own strength.” 

Also:

“Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.”

The Art of War Chapter 4, Tactical Dispositions

The daughter of the kidnapped chamberlain, escapes when the guards send her out to bring them more sake. Sanjuro tells the samurais to let the girl take sake to the guards and get them nice and drunk. This will make it much easier to rescue the girl and her mother. Sun Tzu:

“To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.”

The Art of War Chapter 5, Energy 

Sanjuro’s outward appearance is as a peasant and a beggar whose social status and physical appearance cause the samurais to devalue his character and intelligence. Sun Tzu:

“Simulated disorder postulates perfect discipline, simulated fear postulates courage; simulated weakness postulates strength. Hiding order beneath the cloak of disorder is simply a question of subdivision; concealing courage under a show of timidity presupposes a fund of latent energy; masking strength with weakness is to be effected by tactical dispositions.”

The 1st weakness the samurais must overcome is the falsehood of outer appearances. They disbelieve their chamberlain who is ugly and trust the superintendent who is pleasant looking. Sanjuro reminds the samurais of the chamberlain’s warning: “The worst one is beyond your imagination,” referring to people like the superintendent whose outward appearance is deceptive.

The Art of War Chapter 6, Weak Points and Strong

Sanjuro tells the samurais that the superintendent plans to kill the chamberlain soon and that they should stir up public concern over the chamberlain’s whereabouts. But before the samurai can act on this advice, the superintendent posts a public notice detailing the chamberlain’s crimes which they are actually framing him for. The notice warns the public not to let the chamberlain’s supporters agitate them. By the superintendent remaining quiet, Sanjuro and the samurai can’t make a move without exposing themselves but Sanjuro comes up with a counter move—the superintendent doesn’t know their true numbers and that there are only 9 samurais-10 including himself. Sanjuro, acting as a double agent, warns Muroto that the chamberlain’s supporters number 130 men! Sun Tzu:

“Numerical weakness comes from having to prepare against possible attacks; numerical strength, from compelling our adversary to make these preparations against us.”

The samurais discover that the chamberlain is being held next door to Izaki’s house. Sanjuro goes next door to Kurofuji’s mansion to tell Muroto that the chamberlain’s supporters are at Komyo temple. He happened to be on the 2nd floor in the temple and the supporters are using the temple as their hideout. Muroto and his guards leave but Sanjuro stays behind, claiming to be hungry. Once the mansion is empty, he goes out to the garden and gathers camellias to send down the stream to the samurais—this is the signal to come rescue the chamberlain! Muroto doubles back and catches Sanjuro red-handed. Then, more bad news: Takebayashi runs in to tell Muroto that Sanjuro lied about Komyo temple. Earlier, Sanjuro told Muroto he had witnessed the chamberlain’s supporters from the 2nd floor of the temple; the temple has no 2nd floor! Muroto is pissed! He has Sanjuro tied up and rushes off to bring back their army to help guard the mansion. 

Takebayashi and Kukui are left with Sanjuro who laughs and warns them that the chamberlain’s supporters will storm the mansion and kill them if they don’t see any camellias coming down the stream. Takebayashi and Kukui doubt Sanjuro’s story until Takebayashi peeks over the wall and sees a samurai by the stream, waiting. The door behind the samurai  is jam-packed with samurais (the door is small making them appear more than 9). The old man goes back and verifies Sanjuro’s story. Sanjuro offers them a deal: he’ll give them the signal for 50 pieces of gold. They agree and he tells them not to send red camellias downstream; red camellias mean attack. Instead, he instructs the old men to send white camellias downstream; white camellias mean stop. No camellias mean he’s in trouble! Kukui and Takebayashi dump as many white camellias as they can into the stream. In moments, Ikari and his fellow samurais storm the mansion, rescuing both Sanjuro and the chamberlain. (in this example, Sanjuro plays on the fears of Kukui and Takebayashi that an army will storm the mansion if they don’t get a signal). Sun Tzu:

“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.”

And also: 

“Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards.” 

The Art of War Chapter 7, Maneuvering

recap:

The superintendent deceives the samurais by 1) being physically attractive since beauty is generally associated with virtue; 2) making the samurais believe that he sympathizes with their petition after the chamberlain, who is very ugly (a characteristic generally associated with evil) turns down their petition to weed out corruption

Sanjuro’s appearance is also deceptive: he begs for food, has holey socks and wears raggedy clothes—in other words, his appearance  stereotypes him as someone of little character, pride, organization, or intelligence. When the samurais offer him a bag of gold for saving their lives, he takes 1 gold piece and gives the bag of gold back to them. And when Muroto offers him a well-paying job, he turns it down even though he begs for food. Sun Tzu:

“In war, practice dissimulation, and you will succeed.”