A lot of people have attempted to explain how Akira Kurosawa, primarily his film Hidden Fortress, inspired George Lucas and a film franchise you may have heard of called Star Wars. However, this new illustrated video from CineFix is the best I’ve seen yet and it does so by not only discussing Kurosawa’s influence on Lucas, but it does an excellent job of adding in some historical background.
Where did the term Jedi come from? What inspired the story idea for Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope? Which Kurosawa characters inspired Darth Vader, Yoda, C3-PO, R2-D2, Princess Leia, etc? All will be answered in the following seven minutes and 51 seconds. Take a moment and enjoy, and add a few films to your Netflix queue while you’re at it.
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BONUS: Here’s my review of Criterion’s Blu-ray release of Hidden Fortress.
