A Note on Akira Kurosawa

To say that Kurosawa is among the greatest filmmakers to ever live is an understatement. He revitalized the Japanese film industry in the wake of World War Two. Many of America's top directors cite him as a source of inspiration including: Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now), Martin Scorsese (The Departed, Goodfellas), Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones, Schindler's List), and even the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas. Lucas in fact based the story of Star Wars off of Kurosawa's film, The Hidden Fortress. Countless others have used Kurosawa's work. A Fistful of Dollars, the first movie in Clint Eastwood's The Man with No Name Trilogy, is based on Kurosawa's Yojimbo. The Magnificent Seven is based on one of Kurosawa's greatest works, Seven Samurai. The movie Vantage Point borrows its storytelling structure from Kurosawa's Rashomon. So as you can see, to say that Kurosawa is among the greatest filmmakers to ever live is an understatement.