1. Jennifer Purgill
Senior Seminar P.3
Rashomon Essay
To what extent do the views of either Ebert or Morris (with regard to truth and reality) fit an
analysis of the film Rashomon?
Rashomon is a Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa created in 1950. In the movie,
four different stories are explained about the same incident are told by the samurai, his wife, a
woodcutter, and a bandit. Several of the characters claim to have committed the murder, but by
the end of the film Kurosawa does not reveal who the true murderer is; the audience is left to
decide who they believe committed the crime. Roger Ebert and Errol Morris are two movie
critics who have opposing viewpoints on the movie in regard to truth in reality. Although they
both agree with the idea that all humans have different perspectives, they have opposing
viewpoints associated with truth and reality. Ebert believes that truth and reality are subjective,
and are different from each individual’s viewpoint. Morris on the other hand believes that truth
and reality are objective and independent of perception. Although the views of Roger Ebert are
both logical and valid, the views of Errol Morris better fit an analysis to the film Rashomon in
regard to truth and reality.
Ebert supports the idea that truth and reality are subjective and that every person has their
own truth and reality based on their perception and experiences and applies this idea in his
analysis of Rashomon. Ebert’s view of relativism is similar to that of Pascal’s. In the film

2. Rashomon, all of the characters have a different story as to what occurred. Each character has
their own version of what happened that they believe is true and it is part of their own reality;
they have their own mental map which contains their individual experiences. This supports
Ebert’s theory that truth and reality are subjective and dependent upon humans and their
individual experiences. Each character’s experiences in the movie led them to have different
stories as to what happened in the forest in regards to the murder of the samurai. Ebert states that
flashbacks “do not agree with any objective reality. Because we see the events in flashbacks, we
assume they reflect truth. But all they reflect is a point of view” (Ebert). What he says indirectly
supports Morris’ theory that truth is independent. Although a person may believe that what they
see is reality, it is only their own point of view on a certain experience, it does not make what
they believe true. In the movie, all characters believe that what they saw is reality, but regardless
of their own experiences there is only one person who actually committed the crime. In his
review of Rashomon, Ebert writes that “The genius of Rashomon is that all of the flashbacks are
both true and false” (Ebert). The characters’ flashbacks are true in the sense that what they
believe is reality is true to them, but what they believe to be true may not be the universal truth.
Because the descriptions of what occurred are so subjective and only one of the stories could
actually be the truth, Ebert’s views of truth and reality are not the best to analyze Rashomon.
As opposed to Ebert, Morris believes that there is only one universal truth and that truth
and reality are independent of people. Morris’ ideas in regards to the truth and reality in the film
can be supported with Plato’s three characteristics of truth. According to Plato, the three
characteristics of truth are that the truth is public and is true for everyone, it is independent of
anyone’s belief (it is true even if someone does not believe that it is), and it is eternal and was
true in the past, currently, and will always be true. Plato and Morris support the idea that there is

3. only one truth, and that “truth and reality are independent of people, ergo they are both absolute
and objective” (Errol Morris). This would mean that only one of the stories told about the murder
of the samurai is true, regardless of the fact that all of the characters believe their own story is
correct. Although Morris supports the idea that we all have different perceptions of the world and
individual situations, he argues that there is still only one, universal, objective truth that is
independent of humans and their perception. In his review, Morris states that “there is a
difference between the reality and what we perceive but we often ignore” (Errol Morris). This
statement supports the idea that our perception does not take us straight to reality; we need to
search for the truth because we often perceive things but either subconsciously or consciously
ignore parts of what is occurring. Selective perception could also be a reason for why the
characters in the film only remembered certain parts of what happened, or saw only what they
wanted to see. Because the characters in the film all claim to know the truth but have completely
different stories as to what happened, it shows that they all had ignored or simply did not
perceive what really happened because only one of the people who confessed to the crime had
actually committed it. Because of Morris’ support of Plato’s three characteristics of truth and
selective perception, Morris’ views better fit an analysis of the film.
Morris’ beliefs of truth and reality being objective can be seen by other ideas established
by Plato. A theory that widely supports Morris’ ideas comes from Plato’sformula of knowledge
being a justified true belief (K=JTB). Although all of the characters in the film have a different
belief and their justification is their perception of the incident, there is only one possible truth
that fits the formula. The justification of what they believe happened through perception also
may be incorrect due to selective perception, they may have left out certain vital pieces of
information regarding what had happened, either by choice or because they simply did not

4. realize it. Knowledge should be justified with evidence that has been come across with reasoning.
This formula created by Plato is useful in analyzing Rashomon because there is only one
possible person who killed the samurai, regardless of the fact that all of the characters had
confessed to the murder. Because of this, Morris’ ideas about truth and reality better analyze
Rashomon.
Overall, Morris’ ideas better analyze Kurosawa’s 1950 film of Rashomon. His support of
the three characteristics of truth, K=JTB, and selective perception show that there is only one
possible murderer regardless of the fact that all of the characters admitted to committing the
crime. Although both Ebert’s and Morris’ ideas are valid, Morris’ analysis better fit the film of
Rashomon.
Word count: 1,096

5. Works Cited
“Errol Morris.” The Believer.Apr. 2004. Web. 7 Mar. 2012.
Ebert, Roger. “Rashomon (1950).”Rogerebert.com. 26 May 2002. Web. 7 March 2012.