Japanese Grice

Speranza

Eastwood's "Jersey Boys" (set in New Jersey, but the locals think it's old 
enough) opened last week. The NYT reviewer compared it to "Rashomon":

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/20/movies/jersey-boys-eastwoods-take-on-showb
iz-myth.html?_r=0

-- the reference being to the film's source: the Great White Way  musical:

"This has led to the musical’s being sloppily likened to “Rashomon,” a 
comparison that works only if you’ve never seen that 1950 Akira Kurosawa 
touchstone. In “Rashomon,” four characters recount a traumatic episode in a 
forest — a woman is raped and her husband murdered — in separate,
contradictory  flashbacks. Together, the four versions don’t add up to one unified,
coherently  climaxing story: The mystery remains unsolved and the reminiscences
remain  contingent, which makes the film as much about storytelling as a
crime."

Indeed, one reads from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Boys

"Brickman and Elice also used material from interviews with surviving Four 
Seasons members Gaudio, Frankie Valli and Tommy DeVito. Brickman noted that
each  member had his own perspective on what happened during their tenure
as a group.  Of the three, they approached DeVito last, who told them, "Don't
listen to those  guys. I'll tell you what really happened." Elice said that
getting DeVito's  version was a "eureka moment" and the contradiction in
their stories ended up  being incorporated in the musical for a Rashomon
effect (Pressley, Nelson  (October 5, 2009). "Stages: Frankie Valli, the 'Jersey
Boys' Soprano, Still  Happy to Take a Bow". Washington Post. Retrieved
February 1, 2013.Darrow, Chuck  (September 29, 2010). "Writer tells how 'Jersey
Boys' became Broadway stars".  philly.com. Retrieved February 1, 2013.)."

H. Paul G., like Davidson, was a realist. Rashomon indeed allows for a 
philosophical analysis. I don't know about the original intention of the film 
maker, but for any event (that's representable as "p"), either "p or ~p",
where  "~" is 'not'. Kantotle (whom H. Paul G. adored) called this the
"Excluded Third"  (and fourth and fifth, ... and nth, for that matter).

The specific H. Paul G.'s approach would be to compare the four narratives 
of the four seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter), check for their 
implicatures, and disimplicatures that might contradict the original 
implicatures.

Rashomon effect indeed.

Cheers.