He never won an Oscar, but Akira Kurosawa‘s body of work is more of legacy than any golden statue could hope to represent. And it’s not a shock that even today, filmmakers revere his films and frankly, his genius, with awe and total respect. And one of the filmmaker’s biggest advocates is George Lucas.
The filmmaker pop ups in the special features for The Criterion Collection edition of “The Hidden Fortress“—recently upgraded to Blu-ray—and the boutique label has shared some of that online. The two-minute clip finds Lucas sharing how he discovered the filmmaker (props to John Milius) and what Kurosawa’s work meant to him. It’s sort of amusing to see Lucas downplay “The Hidden Fortress” when it has long been regarded as a major influence on “Star Wars.”
Anyway, watch below and for more Kurosawa be sure to watch Alex Cox‘s 1999 documentary “Kurosawa: The Last Emperor” and “A Message From Akira Kurosawa: For Beautiful Movies.”