It seems whenever Akira Kurosawa‘s The Hidden Fortress is mentioned it is invariably linked to George Lucas and Star Wars. The connection has been discussed for many years, perhaps best kept alive by an interview with Lucas discussing the film and its influence, which has first released on the 2001 Criterion DVD release.
The interview is included once again on this new Blu-ray re-release of the film in which Lucas says the main influence Hidden Fortress had on Star Wars was the decision to tell the story from the perspective of the narrative’s two lowliest characters. In the case of Star Wars that would be C-3PO and R2-D2, in Hidden Fortress it’s a pair of bumbling and greedy peasants who stumble upon a general (Toshiro Mifune) and a princess (Misa Uehara) attempting to smuggle royal treasure across enemy lines.
You could point to the use of long lenses, wipes used for transitions from one scene to the next and a few other nods, such as this comparison reel illustrates, but as great as it is for Star Wars fans to have been introduced to the work of Kurosawa, I’m happy Criterion has reissued Hidden Fortress on Blu-ray, this time with a brand new audio commentary with film historian Stephen Prince who immediately points out the possibly more obvious influence this film had on Sergio Leone, chiefly The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The influence is often and immediate as the film opens with the two peasants bickering only to eventually reveal the true focus of the scene, as a fleeing samurai eventually enters the scene from off screen.
Shot in Toho Scope, identical to CinemaScope, Hidden Fortress was Kurosawa’s first widescreen movie and while my main reason for wanting to review this new Criterion release was Prince’s audio commentary, I was caught a little off guard at how much I ended up enjoying the film on a second sitting.
I’d only seen Hidden Fortress once before. I’d purchased it as a blind buy several years ago, watched it, remember feeling a certain affinity for it, but not overly enthused. Perhaps it was the pristine restoration or perhaps a matter of mood, but I was enthralled by all 139 minutes of this film thanks to its blend of action and dry humor as well as the influences it ultimately had on cinema, not to mention the influence cinema had on Kurosawa.
There are two specific scenes that stand out as absolutely pivotal when it comes to the conversation of cinema. The first is a riff on Sergei Eisentein‘s Odessa steps in Battleship Potemkin as a surging mass of prisoners escape imprisonment down a massive series of steps. The horde thunders down what was a set creation, which becomes only obvious due to the camera shaking as people pass by, but this only adds to the intensity of the scene. The scene also adds to the near unbelievability that this was Kurosawa’s first widescreen film given the intimacy and immediacy of the shot.
The second scene comes later and is Kurosawa’s attempt at capturing the intensity of a John Ford action sequence. Featuring Mifune on horseback, sword firmly in both hands with the camera panning and still having issues attempting to keep up, the use of editing in combination with extraordinary camerawork creates for an extremely intense sequence.
I don’t know if I was having a bad day when I first watched Hidden Fortress, but whatever the case may be, these scenes had a much larger impact on me this time around, making this release something I was only really interested inf for the expanded features, but now find it easy to recommend as a title well worthy of your collection.
[amz asin=”B00HE01030″ size=”small”]Also new to this release, that wasn’t included on the original Criterion DVD, is another installment in the “Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create” series, which has become a staple inclusion in all of Criterion’s Kurosawa releases. Delving into Ford’s influence on Kurosawa and discussing the making of the film with many of Kurosawa’s collaborators, I especially enjoyed hearing from Takeshi Kato, who plays the fleeing samurai at the beginning of the film. I especially loved his story of how the opening scene was captured in one shot and how if it hadn’t been for the bronze plate in his wig he may have been permanently injured when one of the horses kicks him in the back of the head. You can see the exact moment it happens when you rewatch the film.
These are just some of the secrets revealed on this release, another is how they had to sprinkle saw dust on the ground to get more dust in the horse chase sequences because Japan isn’t nearly as dry and dusty as the desert where Ford shot his films. We also learn of the production’s troubles with shooting around the fog that kept rolling in and you’ll also recognize shots that will soon become signature Kurosawa moments, such as armies of men on horseback moving from left to right along a hillside, which he would later perfect in sun-kissed color in Kagemusha.
Hidden Fortress isn’t the best of Kurosawa, but the best is often judged by how serious and dramatic a film can be. While this film has its moments of drama, it’s largely a more free-flowing picture with doses of drama equally matched by action and humor and as much as Seven Samurai is probably the first Kurosawa film today’s audiences start with, this might be an easier start for those that find it more difficult to get into classic films.
You can pick up a copy right now from Amazon.com or [bn url=”http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-the-hidden-fortress-toshiro-mifune/3888728?ean=715515113212″ text=”Barnes & Noble”].
