GALBRAITH, Stuart IV 1965-

PERSONAL: Born December 29, 1965, in Detroit, MI; son of Stuart E. and Mary A. Galbraith; married Anne Sharp, 1990 (divorced, 1994). Education: Eastern Michigan University, B.A. (magna cum laude); University of Southern California, M.A., 1997.

ADDRESSES: Home—7400 Hollywood Blvd., No. 516, Hollywood, CA 90046.

CAREER: Writer.

WRITINGS:

Motor City Marquees, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 1994.

Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 1994.

The Japanese Filmography, 1900-1994, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 1996.

Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo!: The Incredible World of Japanese Fantasy Films, Feral House (Venice, CA), 1997.

The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, Faber & Faber (New York, NY), 2001.

Author of "Video View," a weekly home video column in the Ann Arbor News, 1989-93. Contributor to magazines and newspapers, including Filmfax, Cult Movies, Agenda, and Current.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A book on the science fiction genre, 1977-1997.

SIDELIGHTS: Stuart Galbraith IV conducted extensive research on the lives of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune to write his book The Emperor and the Wolf. The book is a biography of two men in Japanese cinema who collaborated on sixteen films together, including Rashomon and The Seven Samurai. Galbraith extensively describes each man's background and the events that led them into cinema just after World War II. He goes into great detail explaining their cooperation on projects, the critics' responses to Kurosawa and Mifune's cinematic creations together, and the end of their friendship. With Kurosawa as director and Mifune as his leading man, they were leaders of Japanese cinema. However, after completing Red Beard, their last picture together, both men's careers went into decline. They died estranged and never finding the same success they experienced when working with one another.

Peter Biskind, writing in the New York Times, called Galbraith's book a "rare feast for lovers of Japanese cinema." But Variety's Nicholas Riccardi considered the length and depth of Galbraith's description of plot synopses in The Emperor and the Wolf overwhelming and smothering. He concluded that The Emperor and the Wolf is a "disappointment" and fans of Kurosawa "will have to wait for the great [biography]." Nevertheless, Library Journal contributor Stephen Rees praised Galbraith's effort to tell "a little-known, sometimes inspiring story [that provides] astute reading of major themes in the work of Kurosawa and Mifune."

Galbraith once told CA: "Movies are my great passion, and my books and magazine articles are a means to learn more about those film areas of which I am especially fond. Also, I am attracted to subjects of which little has been written. In the case of my Japanese cinema books, I was frustrated that there was so little on this subject, other than film theory-type books or books that focus almost exclusively on so-called 'art house' films. I am amazed, for instance, there is yet to appear an English-language biography or filmography of Japan's greatest star, Toshiro Mifune.

"My interests and areas of expertise include classical Hollywood cinema, especially science fiction, horror, fantasy, comedies, musicals, and westerns; wide-screen and sound technologies and film exhibition or historic film theaters; postwar American film; and Japanese and British cinema. My influences include writers Bill Warren, Leonard Maltin, Kevin Brownlow, Donald Richie, the late Ron Haver, and Thomas Schatz; in any event, they have written some of the film books I like most. Several other associates of mine, notably writers Steve Ryfle, Ted Okuda, and R. M. Hayes, have also been major influences, as have my film history professors Rick Jewell, David Shepard, and Drew Casper. The best film book I've read in a long time was Shawn Levy's The King of Comedy; I would like to write something as good as that some day.

"I write in a very straightforward, matter-of-fact style. I abhor pretentiousness, particularly writing about film that ignores or dismisses the realities of how and why motion pictures are produced, released, and received by contemporary audiences and critics. I believe in exhaustive research, and for me the biggest kick about writing lies in finding those little nuggets of heretofore unknown information. I also try to inject my passion for film into my writing, while providing the reader with an entertaining and useful tool that he or she will want to keep near the video cassette recorder, one that will inspire people to seek out films they might otherwise overlook.

"Ultimately, I would like to be able to live reasonably from my writing, while working in the environment of a film archive or library."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 2002, Gordon Flagg, review of The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, p. 790.

Choice, September, 1996, review of The Japanese Filmography, p. 98.

Economist, February 2, 2002, review of "Dynamic Duo: Japanese Cinema."

Film Quarterly, winter, 1997, review of The Japanese Filmography, p. 64.

Library Journal, May 15, 1996, review of The Japanese Filmography, p.54; January, 2002, Stephen Rees, review of The Emperor and the Wolf, p. 106.

New York Times, April 14, 2002, Peter Biskind, "Samurai Cinema," p.23.

Reference and Research Book News, May, 1994, review of Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, p. 48; July, 1996, review of The Japanese Filmography, p. 60.

RQ, winter, 1996, review of The Japanese Filmography, p. 298.

Sunday Times (London, England), March 3, 2002, Christopher Silvester, "Japanese Cinema's Greatest Double Act; Cinema," p.42.

TCI, October, 1994, review of Motor City Marquees, p. 53.

Times Higher Education Supplement, March 15, 2002, Donald Richie, "Director's Cut Leaves Scars," p. 25.

Variety, January 28, 2002, 1995, Nicholas Riccardi, review of The Emperor and the Wolf, p. 40.*