The Hidden Fortress Reviews

Only Hitchcock could make masterpieces more entertaining than Kurosawa. Both of these artists were masters at soaking their great entertainment with deep humanity and vice versa. Hidden Fortress is one of Kurosawa's most entertaining films a tiny step below Yojimbo. The serious issues are small, but there. Class issues are prevalent, although nowhere near as in depth as in The Seven Samurai. Everyone in the film is wonderful.

This film contains Kurosawa's best cinematography in black and white, competing with The Bad Sleep Well. The new Criterion DVD is so outstandingly gorgeous it just blew me away. I wish I could afford it to own for myself! 10/10

I can’t believe I haven’t seen any movies directed by Akira Kurosawa for such a long time. A few years ago, I was doing a good job and ended up watching 13 of his movies but, by now, it has been almost 10 years since I saw another one of his movies. It is a real shame but maybe I will pick it up again later on. Anyway, this flick is probably one of his most famous ones and therefore I was really eager to check it out. Indeed, it was a huge inspiration for Georges Lucas before creating ‘Star Wars’ as R2-D2 and C-3PO were pretty much copied on Tahei and Matashichi. Apparently, Kurosawa wanted this time to make something more commercial and accessible after making some artistic features like ‘Rashomon’, and indeed, in box-office terms, it was one of his most successful films at the time. Personally, I thought it was pretty good and quite entertaining but it wasn’t one of his best movies in my opinion. To conclude, even though it didn’t really blow me away, it still remains a pretty good flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Kurosawa’s work.