Essential Art House: Hidden Fortress [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (original Japanese title: Kakushi Toride No San Akunin) stars Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara as a pair of misfit soldiers. Running from the enemy after a disastrous defeat, the two soldiers fall in with general Toshiro Mifune, who is in search of a huge cache of gold. Mifune is also desirous of freeing princess-in-exile Misa Uehara from the clutches of the evil victorious army. Several large and small battles ensue before Mifune can realize his goal. If the plot of Hidden Fortress sounds vaguely familiar to you, try this exercise: substitute two robots for Chiaki and Fujiwara, Mark Hamill for Mifune, and Carrie Fisher for Uehara. George Lucas himself admitted that Hidden Fortress was a principal inspiration for his Star Wars saga; stretching the point farther, both Hidden Fortress and Star Wars had their roots in John Ford's The Searchers. Originally released in a 137-minute form, The Hidden Fortress was sliced to ribbons by its American distributors, and years later received extensive restoration. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono

AWARDS

• Berlin International Film Festival

•     Won Silver Bear for Best Director - 1959 (Akira Kurosawa)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Toshiro Mifune - Gen. Rokurota Makabe
       Misa Uehara - Lady Yukihime
       Kamatari Fujiwara - Matashichi
       Minoru Chiaki - Tahei
       Susumu Fujita - Gen. Hyoe Tadokoro
       Takashi Shimura - The Old General, Izumi Nagakura
       Eiko Miyoshi - Lady-in-Waiting
       Ikio Sawamura - Gambler

• Director:

  Akira Kurosawa

• Producer:

  Akira Kurosawa, Masumi Fujimoto

• Screenwriter:

  Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Shinobu Hashimoto, Ryuzo Kikushima

• Cinematographer:

  Kazuo Yamazaki

• Composer (Music Score):

  Masaru Sato

• Editor:

  Akira Kurosawa

• Production Designer:

  Yoshiro Muraki

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Fumio Yanoguchi

REVIEW:

• Kurosawa's light adventure is probably best known as one of the primary inspirations for George Lucas' Star Wars (1977), but it's a masterful entertainment in its own right. Toshiro Mifune stars as a famous general who uses a couple of clownish peasants to help him transport a gold shipment and a volatile young princess through enemy territory. The film was the pioneering effort of the Japanese film industry in the use of the widescreen ratio, and, in a sense, Kurosawa's brilliantly supple deployment of the process is the star of the film. Especially in the early sequences in the prison and the quarry, the director achieves extraordinary effects of mass and scale as he suggests the smallness of the squabbling peasants and the stature of General Rokurota. He also uses the available space to spread the characters as far as he can, expressing the common distrust that is, at times, the only emotion these four very differently motivated characters share. Kurosawa has often suggested to his actors that they imagine themselves as various animals in an effort to elicit a more overtly physical performance, and that seems to be the case here, as the slightly exaggerated ensemble acting style enhances the humor of a film that is sometimes reminiscent of an early silent. Mifune, a virtuoso of physical acting, did all his own stunts, the most impressive being a horse-mounted pursuit while swinging a sword. Like Star Wars, the film has something of the quality of a fairy tale, one which can be appreciated both by children and adults. ~ Michael Costello, Rovi