Director of the Month: Akira Kurosawa
A grand-scale adventure as only Akira Kurosawa could create, The Hidden Fortress delivers Kurosawa’s trademark deft blend of wry humor, breathtaking action, and compassionate humanity. The master’s invaluable collaborator and muse, the inimitable Toshiro Mifune, stars as a general charged with guarding his defeated clan’s princess (a fierce Misa Uehara) as the two smuggle royal treasure across hostile territory (sound familiar… ?). Accompanying them are a pair of bumbling, conniving peasants (…nudge nudge…) who may or may not be their friends. This rip-roaring ride, among Kurosawa’s most beloved films, was a primary influence on… wait for it… George Lucas’s Star Wars.