George Lucas famously raided Akira Kurosawa’s lesser classic for Star Wars: the squabbling mismatched comic relief as main characters, the fugitive princess, the wily general in disguise, even the wipes. Makes sense since Kurosawa, coming off a string of somber films, made Hidden Fortress as a stab at a big box-office action-adventure flick. What it lacks in space battles it makes up for in scope and skill.
1958 Akira Kurosawa 2.35:1 B&W DCP 126 min.
