Please write a response, and save it
You should consider this question explicitly (i.e., what do the characters themselves SAY that bears on "human nature"?) and implicitly (what are the messages that come across because of how Kurosawa presents the story? what do you conclude about "human nauture" from watching the film?). The four contemporary reviews might be helpful as background material, at least in suggesting how extremely varied the response to the film was fifty years ago.
For this and most other Assignments, I am primarily interested in your own reactions, but you're certainly welcome to do some research into what others have said, so long as you cite the resources you've consulted (give URLs for any Web pages, mention books or articles, provide page numbers for any quotations, etc... just basic responsible scholarly stuff).
I'll use the check/check plus/check minus scheme to grade your responses. In general, a check plus will reward EXTRA effort and/or eloquence; a check minus should suggest that you haven't devoted enough attention to the task. Rarely are there "right" and "wrong" answers to worthwhile questions, so my evaluation is pretty subjective. What I'm looking for is a sense that you've thought about an issue or a problem, and come to some conclusion.