And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Akira Kurosawa, March 23, 1910 - September 6, 1998.
I read that he was so depressed that he was going to commit suicide. The success of Dersu (1974) pulled him back. I guess that's part and parcel of the artistic mind.
Kurosawa was imitated but never equalled by anyone in Hollywood. Yojimbo was copied as A Fistful of Dollars, The Seven Samurai was copied as The Magnificent Seven, Rashomon was the first film where the same incident is shown from multiple points of view and The Hidden Fortress inspired Star Wars.
I watched his film, Dersu Ushala, two nights ago. Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteWatch Ran sometime.
ReplyDeleteIt's King Lear, with samurai, on a scale of Waterloo or War and Peace.
Kurosawa was his country's version of Orson Welles, John Huston, or Cecil B. DeMille.
I read that he was so depressed that he was going to commit suicide. The success of Dersu (1974) pulled him back.
DeleteI guess that's part and parcel of the artistic mind.
BTW: MOSFILMS (Russian film makers on YT) featuring some very good movies.
DeleteKurosawa was imitated but never equalled by anyone in Hollywood. Yojimbo was copied as A Fistful of Dollars, The Seven Samurai was copied as The Magnificent Seven, Rashomon was the first film where the same incident is shown from multiple points of view and The Hidden Fortress inspired Star Wars.
ReplyDeleteAl_in_Ottawa
'Star Wars' Owes A Great Debt To Akira Kurosawa's 'The Hidden Fortress'
ReplyDeletehttps://www.slashfilm.com/567916/star-wars-and-the-hidden-fortress/
I do love samurai movies
ReplyDeleteWatch 'Tokyo Drifter,' I don't think it's Kurosawa, but very stylish.
ReplyDelete