weak effort by kuro

Actually I believe, Lucas' favorite was SEVEN SAMURAI followed by YOJIMBO. What intrigued him about THE HIDDEN FORTRESS, was that it was taking the viewpoint from the two peasants, who would evolve into R2-D2 and C3-PO for his STAR WARS movies.

Lesser-effort meaning what? Toshiro Mifune should have done even more action scenes? (How can anyone top the horse chasing sequence and the duel with a rival general).

This was also Kurosawa's first widescreen effort and like SEVEN SAMURAI, it overran it’s production schedule, prompting Toho to tell Kurosawa to form his own production company to split the costs for future movies.

This was in now way at all a weak effort by Akira Kurosawa, and if anything achieves having something for all ages, i watched with my 45 year old dad, and 9 year old brother, and i'm 18. All loved it for our own reasons. Also the characters are almost unbeatable. Loved it, and i gave it 10/10.

Top5 Films:Seven Samurai, Hidden Fortress,Treasure of Sierra Madre, Throne of Blood,Goodfellas

This is a thouroughly enjoyable film, but I understand Botkin's point. Hidden Fortress plays much like Kurosawa "lite" compared to his more serious, and denser efforts like Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Ikiru, Rashomon, et.al.

This one is light, breezy, and doesn't really challenge an audience as his deeper, darker, films do.

A fun film, but not one that really showcases Kurosawa's filmmaking talents as well as the others. IMO, only the interior bound High and Low or Sanjuro (Yojimbo with a comic spin) are as disposable as this one. Again, not a knock on those films, just an opinion that they are a step down from his best, which demand more of the audience.

It's not a lesser effort in terms of the sheer, magical craft that has clearly been exerted in it's making. That it's a faster paced, lighter hearted tale than most of the ones he's best known for today is not at all to its detriment.


on battleship hill, i hear the wind
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I don't see it as weak at all.

It's often referred to as the "light" movie maybe because of its comedic sequences - but in this regard one can look at 7 samurai as being light too, considering Mifune buffoon character ... (although I suspect it's thought of light because all the main characters manage to stay alive till the end of the movie - including gen. Hyeo Tadokoro, which theoretically was a traitor ).

This movie has an incredible pace, the characters are strongly & clearly drawn (the duel was used to sketch both generals, for instance - was quite dramatic, realistic - with real effort on the actors' side) , the scenery was awesome & went very well with the action, the princess' coming of age was nicely staged, dialogue snapped, no stunts, but the actors did it themselves ... and so on. The 2 villagers were an extraordinary mixture of cunningness, cowardice, repulsiveness, but never humorous - they were getting, though, into some really nasty situations due to their character, some of these looked funny ( but that sort of "serves you right" fun, so typical for old, classic stories).

I think this movie is really a gem, but regarded as light for its rainbow-like shine, probably : -)

totally agree

IIrc, this was made as a parody of jidaigekai. Kurosawa turned the genre on its head by making the two main characters bumbling peasants. It also explains why Mifune's character is so over-the-top in his stoicism and heroism.

But, being Kurosawa, it's beautifully shot and generally excellent, but I agree, it's not on the same footing as Seven Samurai, High and Low or even Madadayo.

Give them the respect they deserve.

DCAC! Abayo!

haha, yeah, I guess I agree with you. Certainly the major inspirations for Star Wars (bumbling peasants: C-3PO, R2-D2) represent the film's weakest elements. Those guys are pure caricature. Really, though, there are a lot of fairly prosaic caricatures going round here as far as the writing is concerned. On the upside, there are some powerful visuals and fairly imaginative plotting to be enjoyed. But as far as it being a Kurosawa film, it's a sizeable letdown.

Lucas did say he preferred Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Ikiru. He even sounded hesitant to name this one his fourth favorite. I definitely got Return of the Jedi heavy vibes when Rokurota chases down the soldiers on horseback. Reminded me of the speeder bike chase on Endor. That was probably my favorite sequence, how it led into the spear fight between the two generals. Pretty cool.

My rating: 8