Steven Seagal names his five favourite movies of all time
The Special Representative for Russia-US Cultural Links and Historical Heritage, Steven Seagal, is better known for his work in the film industry, even if his recent comments defending Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine have brought his name back into the public’s attention.
Seagal is a 7th-dan black belt in Aikido and used his martial arts knowledge to play in several action films throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, including Under Siege, Above the Law and The Patriot. Seagal has also released two studio albums on which he sings and plays the guitar. However, it is cinema that looks to be the naturalised Russian actor’s biggest love, alongside martial arts, so let’s take a look at his favourite films, as per Rotten Tomatoes.
First up for Seagal is Mike Nichol’s 1991 film Regarding Henry, which stars Harrison Ford as a lawyer from New York City whose memory and speech are affected after he survives a shooting. Seagal said of the film, “Just how reality can, in the blink of an eye, completely change somebody’s life. And the transformation. [Great] performances.”
Next is Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, the 1987 epic biopic about Puyi, the last Emperor of China, documenting his path from being a child in imprisonment right up to taking the throne. Seagal said the film is about “how lives can tremendously overturn one’s life and, you know, go from the sacred to the profane, the black to white. We as human beings are really merely passengers who think we have control over the vehicle we’re driving.”
There’s also room for an all-time classic on Seagal’s list, too, and he holds a deep admiration for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, widely considered one of the greatest films of all time. “I thought The Godfather I and II were spectacular examples of wonderful storytelling, the evolution of great characters and drama, amazing directing, spectacular music,” Seagal said.
Seagal said that Akira Kurosawa’s 1965 film Red Beard, which tells of the relationship between a doctor and his trainee, is “one of the most important movies” in his life. “I don’t want to say a movie about me, but it’s a movie about someone I tried to emulate subconsciously in that I am a martial artist, I am a healer, and I am a warrior, and those are the three kinds of components that really make up Mifune’s kind of character.”
Red Beard is not the only Kurosawa film Seagal admires, though. He also selects the 1961 samurai film Yojimbo in which Kurosawa tells of a ronin arriving in a small town run by two crime lords who both try to hire him as a bodyguard. “Kurosawa is brilliant. He doesn’t really come out and let the audience know what Yojimbo’s doing,” Seagal said. “You almost wonder if he’s immoral because he’s killing all these folks, and you’re not sure why until the end.”
Steven Seagal’s five favourite movies:
- Regarding Henry (Mike Nichols, 1991)
- The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987)
- The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
- Read Beard (Akira Kurosawa, 1965)
- Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961)
