Akira Kurosawa Birth Anniversary: From Star Wars to Mad Max Fury Road, 5 Films Inspired by Works of the Seven Samurai Director!
His themes and feel of the movies have tried to be replicated throughout the years and it’s great to see such a great filmmaker be honoured like this.
Akira Kurosawa was a legendary filmmaker that changed the face of cinema forever. Often regarded as one of the most important filmmakers ever, Kurosawa had a career spanning over five decades with 30 films to his name. Most of his films dived right into the Japanese culture and really excelled in what they were trying to achieve. Kurosawa is one of the most celebrated filmmakers and for a good reason. Having films like Seven Samurai under his belt which single handedly revolutionised Samurai films, he definitely is one of the best directors of our time. Akira Kurosawa Birth Anniversary Special: From Seven Samurai to Ran, 7 Best Films of the Legendary Director Ranked As per IMDB (LatestLY Exclusive).
Kurosawa’s legacy has been living on all these years as so many filmmakers have been inspired by him. His themes and feel of the movies have tried to be replicated throughout the years and it’s great to see such a great filmmaker be honoured like this. So to celebrate Akira Kurosawa’s birth anniversary, we are taking a look at five films that were inspired by his work. Akira Kurosawa 118th Birth Anniversary: Remembering The Man, Reminiscing The Genius.
The Magnificent Seven
This Chris Pratt starrer is basically a Western remake of Seven Samurai. Even the name is indicative of it. While the movie itself doesn’t hit the heights of its inspirations, it’s still a great watch that has an amazing cast to it and will leave you entertained.
A Fistful of Dollars
This Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western is a remake of Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. Kurosawa always has had a huge influence on Western films, but this film really embraced it. Just like in Yojimbo, a nameless protagonist plays both the sides and saves the people of a town.
Mad Max: Fury Road
Mad Max: Fury Road features a very specific homage to Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. In Seven Samurai, the character of Kyuzo goes alone to take out an entire bandit camp. That scene receives a homage when Max goes alone to take out the bullet farmer and his goons.
A Bug’s Life
As weird as it seems, yes, Pixar also took inspiration from Seven Samurai. A Bug’s Life adopts the same concept of a town hiring unconventional heroes to save them from invaders, and this movie really wears the inspiration on its sleeves.
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
Kurosawa has had a huge influence on arguably one of the biggest franchises of all time. A New Hope takes direct influences from the acclaimed movie The Hidden Fortress. A lot of C-3PO and R2D2’s dialogue is also ripped out straight from Kurosawa’s films. This is one of the most important entries on the list, because without Kurosawa, we never really would have had Star Wars in a way.
If anything, this list proves just how important Kurosawa has been to films. The entries over here are just the tip of the ice berg as Kurosawa still is having inspiration on many films that come out today. Akira Kurosawa’s legacy is going to live on forever.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 23, 2022 09:20 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).