The Hidden Fortress.

I decided that eventually it would be time to put my zombie fanaticism to an end, and that I would need to transition into another genre I can call my own.

I, of course, am doing this no time soon, but I thought it would be good to get some fresh film in there somewhere. Thus, The Hidden Fortress.

As one of Akira Kurosawa's classic and seminal samurai films, Fortress sounded like it would be a good primer because of its known influence on George Lucas into creating the Star Wars trilogy. The older ones. Not the newer ones, also known as The Worst Movies Ever Made trilogy.

Fortress tells the tale of a general and princess from a recently destroyed kingdom who must travel across enemy borders, sneak through enemy territory, and into the land of allies carrying 200 pieces of gold. Also in the movie are two bumbling peasants, who can't seem to keep their greed in check as they are blindly convinced to help the general and the princess. As the general Rokoruta put it, "Make them carry gold and they'll do anything we ask."

One of the key elements of Kurosawa's films is his visual style. His trademarks carry long, single-frame shots where a lot of action takes place. One opening scene has the two bumbling peasants lamenting their position in life and suddenly looking past the camera shocked, as a war-torn man is chased into the frame by several men on horses and killed right there in front of them. All of this takes place in one single wide shot.

Another positive of this film is that the peasants, though best friends at heart, often end up in fights with each other of small pieces of the gold. This functions as the comic relief of the film, and their physical acting is timeless.

The special feature on this disc that I watched was an interview with George Lucas about the film's influence on himself. He tells of his upbringing, where he didn't get to see any foreign films until film school, where he was exposed to Kurosawa's work. The main influence on Lucas, as he states it, is the telling of the story from the two lowliest characters. In Fortress, that means the two peasants. In Star Wars, that of course means the two droids, C-3PO and R2-D2. It is a very unique attribute to have, and an uncommon one. A lot of movies have two very lowly characters partnered up - say, Dumb and Dumber or the like, but although the characters are idiots, they are still the main characters of the movie.

As a primer, this was a great one. It gave me a lot of insight into Kurosawa's world of storytelling, without having too much clutter to muck it up. There have been better-rated films in his catalog, like Seven Samurai or Yojimbo, but The Hidden Fortress stands as a testament to Kurosawa's work as timeless and important.