1. Heejoo Jung
Senior Sem per. 7
Mr. Clover
To what extent do you agree with the views of either Errol Morris or Roger Ebert with
regard to the film Rashomon?
Rashomon is a Japanese movie directed by Akira Juroawa in 1950 based on a crime
dealing with a death of samurai and rape of his wife with four characters, the samurai, the
wife, the bandit, the woodcutter. Each character is claiming four different contradicting
testimonies to the judge. The testimonies do not agree with each other and what exactly
happened is not shown until the film ends. What the characters say to the judge is the
information that they got through their different perceptions on their experience, and that’s
why the testimonies are different as each character tells. One thing important is that each
testimony is biases on each character. As it can be inferred from what is going on in this film,
this film is quite significant that it examines the process of understanding our environment
and what we see and the interpretation of information based on what we sensed. The fact that
this film creates arguments of truth and reality through different testimonies that do not agree
each other brought the two critics Errol Morris and Roger Ebert to two different positions.
Morris states that there is only one absolute truth, and reality and perception are objective. On
the other hand, Ebert concludes that those are subjective and related to each independent
individual so that multiple truths can exist as the different perceptions block complete
information. It is true that both views fit for this crime, but Roger Ebert’s position is better
regard to Rashomon, and perception and emotions support the view of Roger Ebert.
Errol Morris states that one absolute truth with objective reality. His position
corresponds with Plato’s theory that says only one truth exists no matter how many
interpretation to a situation through different perceptions. He says that “…that there is no
reality, that truth is up for grabs, or that truth is subjective, I find foolish and
unappetizing.”(Interview with Errol Morris), showing that he believes that truth is an absolute

2. Heejoo Jung
Senior Sem per. 7
Mr. Clover
thing. Thus, an utter reality exists while it can differ to each person by different way of
perceiving. As we can see from the film, Rashomon, it focuses on showing several different
perceptions instead of investigating the crime. Still, Morris continues to say that “There is
such a thing as truth, but we have a vested interest in not seeing it, in avoiding it” (Interview
with Errol Morris), which means that the characters used selective perception to get the
conclusion that they want to get while they stop observing the actual reality. For those
reasons, Morris says that this movie is about how different perception affect on the way
individuals interpret the environment, and it disputes Morris’ position that says there is an
absolute truth and objective reality and brings Ebert’s view that truth is subject as a better
points for this case.
Roger Ebert claims that reality is subjective when truth is relative, and that way, it is
possible to get multiple truths. His position is that truth differs from every person, since it is
affected by many factors, such as perception. However, the fact that makes his position fits to
this film is that he accepts all the truth from the people, even though they don’t agree with
each other. He said the flashbacks that the characters used to explain what happened are true
“in that they present an accurate portrait of what each witness thinks happened.” This means
that he considers every different testimony as truth, because that is what the witness believes
happened. He states a reason of this multiple truth saying that “Human beings are unable to
be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without
embellishing.” According to what he said, it is impossible for us to be honest for everything
about ourselves. He also states that “Because we see the events in flashbacks, we assume they
reflect truth. But all they reflect is a point of view, sometimes lied about.” Here, selectivity of
perception works to support his statement. He said what the flashbacks reflect is a point of
view, which come from what we saw and through our perception. According to selectivity of
perception, in the process of our observation and perception, we tend to select what to

3. Heejoo Jung
Senior Sem per. 7
Mr. Clover
perceive, which results in the lack of the whole information that is given from the situation.
Mostly, the information is selected by how it stands out from other. For example, dropping a
small stuff on the patterned carpet makes you hard to find it while dropping a tiny of blood on
white carpet is pretty big deal. This works in this crime in that each character’s point of view
was different and the information that stands out to each person differs from each other. That
way, the truth for each person differs from each other, as selectivity of perception works.
Thus, Ebert’s view that multiple truths exist when reality is subjective fits to the film
Rashomon.
There is another factor that supports Ebert’s position that truth is subjective.
According to the previous paragraph, Ebert’s statement was that there are multiple truths
differed by the factors that blocks complete information such as perception. Another factor
that affects our memory, which creates biased story, our emotion. There are also two views
on emotion, emotion helps understanding or emotion makes us not to understand properly.
However, in either way, emotion affects on our mental and perception. There are many
different emotions, happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. Among those
emotions, the emotion of fear mostly appears in this film. In a good way, positive emotion
brings energy up, but this positive emotion doesn’t come up in this film. On the other hand,
emotion can be obstacle to perception, reason, or language. Our perceptions can be biased by
our emotions. For example, if we are fear of something in front of us, we may see that thing
bigger, more horrible, more serious and scarier. Like this example, the characters may saw
the situation under the biased view of points by the emotion, fear. The wife was in fear of the
bandit and her husband, the bandit was happy that he had the woman that he wanted, the
samurai was angry that he saw his wife raped and the wood cutter was surprised and fear
about the situation happening in front of him. Thus, according to the theory of emotion, it
was obvious that all four characters got four different stories. Morris would not accept all of

4. Heejoo Jung
Senior Sem per. 7
Mr. Clover
those stories as truth, but in Ebert’s position those are all truth themselves. Ebert says that
“Perhaps the emotions evolved in that forest clearing are so strong and fearful that they
cannot be translated into rational explanation”, which means that the strong emotion exist in
the forest may block the full of information so that the characters come up with different
testimonies. Therefore, supported by the theory of emotion, Ebert’s view on the multiple
truths is better to explain the film, Rahomon, than Morris’ absolute truth.
According to the reviews on the Japanese film, Rashomon, with the views toward
truth and reality, Roger Ebert’s position applies better than Errol Morris’ position does, since
it includes the perceptions from one incident that are different considerably and multiple. In
his opinion, each story that each character tells is the truth. Rather say that one of them is
right and the others are wrong, Ebert concludes that the truth is subjective that differs from
the difference in perception and emotion that the teller has and there are all of the stories that
the characters told are truths in their own perception and memory. Therefore, Roger Ebert’s
view of truth and reality best applies to the Akira Kurosawa’s1950 film, Rashomon.