When you hear people talking about the greatest film-makers of all time, what names do you think of? Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, Ridley Scott, James Cameron? In the pantheon of film directors, these guys would definitely be at the top of the list, for sure, and rightly so. These directors have put out some of the most iconic and recognizable films in the history of the cinematic medium. Star Wars, Alien, The Godfather, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Terminator. Not only have these films stood the test of time, but some of them have found their way into the Library of Congress here in the United States for preservation. There is no denying the talent involved in making these films. Over the last 20 years, we have seen newer talent like Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder, and Denis Villeneuve step up to the plate and deliver their own brand of outstanding films. Everybody has to start somewhere and possibly be inspired by somebody. Every director that I’ve just mentioned and more have stated in various interviews that one of their greatest inspirations and reasons for getting into film-making was one man: Akira Kurosawa.
Born in 1910 in Tokyo, Japan, Akira Kurosawa attended an art school and studied a Western style of painting. He would eventually give up his dream of being a painter to become a film-maker. From 1936 to 1943, Mr. Kurosawa was an assistant to Yamamoto Kajirō, one of Japan’s foremost World War II film directors. In 1943, he became a director and created his first movie, Sanshiro Sugata. This film about Japanese judo masters during the 1880s was a rousing success in Japan. It wouldn’t be until 1951’s release of Rashomon, that he would garner international attention for his work. Rashomon was a movie about a samurai, his wife, a bandit, and a woodcutter. The story would center around the murder of the samurai and his wife’s rape, but would be told from 4 different perspectives. It’s an outstanding film that is very deserving of the praise that it got. However, it was Shishinin no samurai that was the turning point in Kurosawa’s career. Most people will recognize that film under the English title: Seven Samurai. A three and a half-hour epic, Seven Samurai tells the story of seven samurai warriors who are hired to to protect villagers from a group of bandits. THIS was the film that has inspired so many film-makers. In fact, Seven Samurai would be the narrative foundation for what become 1960’s The Magnificent Seven, starring Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen. George Lucas himself would use Seven Samurai and The Hidden Fortress as direct inspirations for his own legendary film, Star Wars.
Every action film that you see today owes its existence to Seven Samurai. In terms of thematic elements, filming techniques, and narrative constructs, Seven Samurai has been the basis for so many films of the past 70 years, it’s hard to count. George Lucas clearly used many elements from Samurai in Star Wars including the infamous “wipe” transition that happens between scenes. But it’s not just that. Every frame in Kurosawa’s movies has narrative and emotional purpose. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen any director use motion the way that Akira Kurosawa did. Look at some of the scenes in Seven Samurai and you see a true master at work. Every shot has some motion in it: Rain falling, flags and dust blowing in the wind. For the casual film-goer, details like these would go unnoticed, but therein lies the brilliance of Akira Kurosawa. Those moments that I mentioned display a very emotional aspect of that particular scene. The rain in particular draws the audience’s attention. Akira Kurosawa can communicate more emotion and story in a 1-minute sequence of nature doing its thing than a 20-minute exposition dump by some inexperienced film-maker and writer. Kurosawa trusted audiences enough to show them what was happening. This goes to the very heart of the argument of “show, don’t tell.” Audiences aren’t dumb, they can pick stuff up, and Kurosawa knew that. If you really want a more detailed explanation of motion in Kurosawa’s films, I would suggest the YouTube channel, Every Frame a Painting for this particular subject.
Speaking of influences, I would like to go back to Rashomon for just a little bit. Specifically, the narrative structure of Rashomon inspired the recent Ridley Scott historical drama, The Last Duel with Adam Driver and Matt Damon. That film’s story centered on a man(Damon), who finds out that his wife(Jodie Comer) was raped by his best friend and squire(Driver). So, he challenges Driver’s character to a duel to the death. Obviously inspired by real-life events, the story is told from three different perspectives: Damon’s character, Driver’s, and Comer’s. The purpose for this kind of structure is to show the audience that truth is often in the eye beholder and that a person’s perspective might not be the most reliable. So, was Comer’s character lying? We don’t know. Each perspective sheds a little bit more light on that character and the events leading to and beyond the attack.
Believe it or not, but Akira Kurosawa had HIS influences as well, which included John Ford. Kurosawa was also clearly influenced by the likes of William Shakespeare. The best example of that is 1985’s Ran. The name in Japanese means “chaos.” The story itself is a retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear. The original story focused on an aging monarch who chose to split his kingdom among his daughters. In Ran, Kurosawa made them male instead. It’s a story about the dark side of human nature and corruption. In my personal opinion, Ran is one of the best Shakespeare adaptations ever put to film. By making it a samurai epic, Kurosawa gave the film a more grandiose feel. There’s a siege that takes place in the film where you hear nothing but the film’s score. Again, this goes to Kurosawa’s ability to show the audience what’s happening and without sound effects or voice-work. It’s just music, and it amplifies the emotionally devastating battle to a different level.
Akira Kurosawa has been such an influence on modern directors that two of them managed to convince 20th Century Fox to fund Kurosawa’s 1980 samurai epic, Kagemusha. Those two directors were George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. Without their help, this movie wouldn’t have gotten made because Toho didn’t have the money to produce it. Akira Kurosawa passed away in 1998, but the influence that he had and still has on film industries around the world cannot by understated. Without his knowledge and brilliance, today’s film industries would look very different, and we probably wouldn’t have the films that we do today. For myself, I had heard the name for years, but had never actually seen any of his movies up until a few years ago. I started with Seven Samurai and it blew my mind, it was so good. Over the past week, I’ve made it a point to start watching more of his stuff and I started with Rashomon and Ran. Next up on the list will be Kagemusha. I’ve been extremely impressed with Kurosawa’s movies, at least the ones that I’ve seen so far. In my personal opinion, Akira Kurosawa was the greatest film director of all time. Sure, he only has 34 movies to his name, but it’s not about quantity. It’s about quality, and the movies that he has made are still being studied and taught in schools around the world. As I said in my introduction, every director that lives today owes their career and their movies to this man. In fact, I wouldn’t be writing about movies if it wasn’t for Akira Kurosawa. If you have any interest in the world of film-making, you owe it to yourself to see at least one Akira Kurosawa film in your life, so you can understand why so many people looked up to him.