The Hidden Fortress (1958)

Welcome back for another round of the Criterion Backlog Challenge.

I was vague with my description of this month's theme last time. I was curious to see if anyone would figure it out.

If anyone did, they didn't say here, so Hell with it - in honor of May the 4th, we're looking at the cinematic symbiotic relationship between Akira Kurosawa and George Lucas. 

As such, it was only fitting to kick the month off with Kurosawa's 1958 adventure film, considered to be one of the major touchstones that inspired Star Wars, The Hidden Fortress.

Weird, but related, note about me - over the years, my fandom of Star Wars has developed an odd sub-category. That is a fascination with the malleability of the fandom's collective memory. Digging into the behind the scenes history and development is fascinating both for its own sake and for how much of what people have been told and passed along is retroactive mythology.

I bring this up because the role of The Hidden Fortress is one of those topics that gets distorted. Yes, The Hidden Fortress was an inspiration on Lucas, but it's one of many, and frankly, it's one in very broad strokes rather than a direct lift as fans and detractors have argued.

Rewatching this, I was struck less by the parallels between it and 1977's Star Wars and more about the parallels between it and Lucas's later The Phantom Menace. There's so much put into the idea of comparing A New Hope (as we've come to call it) with this movie that it's kind of caused people to miss that the film has stayed with Lucas beyond just '77.

No, seriously.
Main plot point involves a princess in hiding after her
people are defeated and their lands occupied who has
to assume the part of a commoner while traveling with an older
samurai general and some scrappy friends made along the way.
Yuki's character and plot were tapped into hard in '99.

It's not just the story beats that have stuck with Lucas, however. It's hard not to notice to see how much of Kurosawa's camera work has been influential as well. Sequences such as the opening scene of peasants Tahei and Matashichi fleeing an already lost battle can clearly be seen echoed in parts of Lucas's trilogy.

Speaking of the peasants, they make for one of the interesting shifts between Lucas and Kurosawa. Revisiting Kurosawa's films in recent years, I find myself more aware of is how his period pieces often contain aspects critical of Japan's feudal era and some of the ideology of the era. In this case, that comes from where the movie starts off - our two unlucky peasants fleeing the above mentioned lost battle they joined for fortune and glory, instead getting mixed up with several misadventures.

There has already been a great deal said comparing the ill-fated duo to Lucas's bumbling androids, R2-D2 and C-3PO. In this regard, however, they invite a comparison with a different Star Wars character. Besides the droids, the pair also serve as a less lucky Luke Skywalker, leaving their farms for adventure and instead getting into scrape after another before finally getting their reward.

There's more I could say, both for this film and Kurosawa in general as pertains to their influence on not just Star Wars, but much of modern adventure cinema, but to be honest, I'm saving that for a later entry - which I'm sure some of you have already guessed.
For now, this brings this entry to a close.

A belated May the Fourth be with you to you all, and next we jump ahead a few decades to a time when Lucas got to return the favor to Kurosawa.
 

Till then.