DVD Thoughts: The Hidden Fortress
Nov. 26th, 2012 07:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerWith new time opened up, I thought it about right to get around to watching the Star Wars movies again (once a year or so seems not too much for me), but before getting started on that I did remember something I'd had the mere potential of for a while now. Among the first movies I managed to record on a DVD off of Turner Classic Movies was Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, and of course I remembered all the tales of how Star Wars had started out as an adaptation of that specific movie transposed into space...
There seem to be two different approaches to pointing out all the influences on Star Wars. One is to identify them in the apparent hope of providing some depth to the movies and pointing back to the great works of cinema George Lucas was inspired by; the other is to point out suspicious resemblances almost with a sneer, as if to argue that since George Lucas isn't original, any claim by him to reinterpret the Star Wars movies and present preferred versions is null and void... anyway, I know what I'm more interested in. Right from the first shot of The Hidden Fortress, noticing one of the two deserting peasant soldiers is tall and the other is short brings to mind just who they developed into, and the shot itself also seems reminiscent of Threepio and Artoo's introduction in Return of the Jedi. A number of wipe cuts later, the princess-in-hiding being a real spitfire (there's a brief comment she's been raised as a boy) brought Princess Leia to mind at once, but some further development of "concealment" and "decoys" also made me think further ahead to Queen Amidala.
At the same time, I did find myself thinking there were certainly things in the very first story treatment widely available (such as the band of rebel boys) not directly drawn from The Hidden Fortress, and I began remembering not just comments by fans but also things in "The Making of Star Wars" about how the movie had brought some structure to George Lucas's very first ideas. The outline somehow didn't feel as close to the movie as The Magnificent Seven did to Seven Samurai (both of which I managed to watch a while back now), but then the Western did directly credit the Japanese movie, so I suppose we're right back to arguing hypothetical cases. There were, in fact, a few elements added to "the rough draft" that I could also see as having been drawn from the movie.
For all the resemblances I could remember having been pointed out before, one I hadn't did make me think of a point in the rough draft I've taken particular notice of before. At the same time, I do sort of have the feeling that having been surprised myself, it seems somehow mean-spirited to just blurt it out for anyone still thinking of getting around to the movie. While all of this may suggest I had some slight difficulty seeing Kurosawa's work as itself, it was interesting all the same.
There seem to be two different approaches to pointing out all the influences on Star Wars. One is to identify them in the apparent hope of providing some depth to the movies and pointing back to the great works of cinema George Lucas was inspired by; the other is to point out suspicious resemblances almost with a sneer, as if to argue that since George Lucas isn't original, any claim by him to reinterpret the Star Wars movies and present preferred versions is null and void... anyway, I know what I'm more interested in. Right from the first shot of The Hidden Fortress, noticing one of the two deserting peasant soldiers is tall and the other is short brings to mind just who they developed into, and the shot itself also seems reminiscent of Threepio and Artoo's introduction in Return of the Jedi. A number of wipe cuts later, the princess-in-hiding being a real spitfire (there's a brief comment she's been raised as a boy) brought Princess Leia to mind at once, but some further development of "concealment" and "decoys" also made me think further ahead to Queen Amidala.
At the same time, I did find myself thinking there were certainly things in the very first story treatment widely available (such as the band of rebel boys) not directly drawn from The Hidden Fortress, and I began remembering not just comments by fans but also things in "The Making of Star Wars" about how the movie had brought some structure to George Lucas's very first ideas. The outline somehow didn't feel as close to the movie as The Magnificent Seven did to Seven Samurai (both of which I managed to watch a while back now), but then the Western did directly credit the Japanese movie, so I suppose we're right back to arguing hypothetical cases. There were, in fact, a few elements added to "the rough draft" that I could also see as having been drawn from the movie.
For all the resemblances I could remember having been pointed out before, one I hadn't did make me think of a point in the rough draft I've taken particular notice of before. At the same time, I do sort of have the feeling that having been surprised myself, it seems somehow mean-spirited to just blurt it out for anyone still thinking of getting around to the movie. While all of this may suggest I had some slight difficulty seeing Kurosawa's work as itself, it was interesting all the same.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-11-27 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-27 05:37 pm (UTC)