Obviously, the reason I watched this Kurosawa classic, was because George Lucas admits he based R2-D2 and C-3PO on a concept first established here: an entire story narrated through the eyes of its two lowest characters. But then, Hidden Fortress is far beyond that. Forget the attractive B&W cinematography. Forget the beautiful performances from the entire ensemble of actors. Stick to the simple but engaging story of a wise Samurai and two idiot peasants, who search for and relocate a large stock of gold, to ascend a princess back to her throne. You don't hear such great stories nowadays.
Mo says:
It's amazing that i saw the sentence was written on DVD that this movie influencd on George Lucas for making "New hope" , then through the movie i thought he got the story of princess and her scape from enemy from Kurosava? ...but i see now that the other concept was the point! telling the story from point of view of two accessory but comic characters...very interesting!
ReplyDeletei guess you saw this interview already. I enjoyed.He exactly mentioned about this movie and honesty state such influence on him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eMvSjDZYb4
Lucas has repeatedly admitted before that Kurosawa's works were a huge inspiration for his "Star Wars" movies. There's no question that Obi-wan Kenobi and the Jedi are actually Samurais, and I think it was pure genius on the part of Lucas to create two robots out of the two peasants of an old black and white Kurosawa film.
ReplyDeleteAmong filmmakers, Lucas, Scorsese and Tarantino are the the rare ones that very prominently pay homage to the films and filmmakers they were inspired from.