Happy 100th Birthday Akira Kurosawa

On March 23, 1910 the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa was born. He would have been 100 years old if he lived.

Kurosawa is one of the great and most influential directors of all time. Kurosawa’s masterpiece “Seven Samurai”, has been remade as a western, “The Magnificent Seven”, a war film, “The Guns of the Navarone”, and even an animated Pixar film, “A Bug’s Life.”

His samurai film, “Yojimbo”, was directly remade as Sergio Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars.” This film launched the careers of Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood and the Spaghetti Western genre.

Kurosawa’s influences doesn’t end there. George Lucas has admitted that Kurosawa’s “Hidden Fortress”, was a direct influence on creating the first “Star Wars” film.

Roger Ebert states that “it could be argued that this greatest of filmmakers gave employment to action heroes for the next 50 years.” He is dead right. I know foreign cinema may turn off some people but I implore you to check out the films of Kurosawa. About two years ago I checked out about 11 Kurosawa films, and I was rewarded with great images and stories that left an indelible mark on my cinematic mind.

Essential Kurosawa include: “Stray Dog”, “Rashomon”, “Ikiru”, “Seven Samurai”, “Throne of Blood”, “Hidden Fortress”, “Yojimbo”, “High and Low”, and “Ran”. If you have the time and the money you could get the fantastic Criterion Collection 100th anniversary DVD box set containing 25 Kurosawa films.

You have probably already heard what a great master of cinema Kurosawa is. What I’m saying is that you should finally get around to checking out his films if you haven’t. In honor of his birthday watch a Kurosawa film. Enjoy the “astounding visions he was able to conjure in his imagination” and watch in awe as he “completely renders them on the screen,” as Martin Scorsese elegantly states in a video honoring Kurosawa on his 99th birthday.

“Happy Birthday Sensei.” – Martin Scorsese

This clip is of Akira Kurosawa receiving a honorary Academy Award from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg at the 62nd Annual Academy Awards.

After you catch up on essential Kurosawa, you can check out this clip from a documentary by Alex Cox that features filmmakers discussing the work of Kurosawa. You can find the other parts of this documentary by clicking on the clip.