From Samurai to Jedi

I recently caught a rare showing of Akira Kurosawa's film Hidden Fortress. The film follows a pair of bickering peasants - fugitives from the losing side in a war - who get caught up in rescuing a feisty princess. Akira Kurosawa is a legendary Japanese director, perhaps better known in the west for his influence on our directors. George Lucas was one of his fans, and helped fund one of Kurosawa's later films. He also used Hidden Fortress as the model for Star Wars.

The peasants become robots, and the samurai become Jedi. The princess remains a princess. As well as the idea of telling the story from the points of view of the film's lowliest characters (Tahei and Matakishi / R2D2 and C3P0), Lucas also copied some of the aesthetics and a couple of scenes. For someone raised on Star Wars, it is somehow uncanny to see elements of it appearing in an old black-and-white movie - in some cases, copied right down to the scene-wipes and sound-effects.

"Mediocre artists borrow", said Picasso, "Great artists steal." Star Wars is in no way a remake of Hidden Fortress. The plots are radically different. George Lucas also stole from Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey theory. It is Campbell's theory that gives us the hero, the mentor, and the "dark father" who the hero must face. From the dark father stemmed the character of Darth Vader, one of film's most memorable villains. Though Vader's costume was inspired by Samurai armour, his role is from Joseph Campbell - Darth Vader is literally a corruption of dark father via Dutch.

It is perhaps the use of Campbell's mythic structure which makes Star Wars so epic. Although not that alone - plenty of films since have copied the structure without the greatness. Excellent acting, script and special effects also play their part.

Hidden Fortress feels a little flat in comparison with it's stellar offspring. It's still a great film though, with hints of deeper themes. Morally grey areas and darker notes show through Kurosawa's black and white cinematography. Even though this is an action/adventure flick, he shows "people as they really are." (to quote Princess Yuki), "their beauty and their ugliness".