George Lucas was heavily inspired by Akira Kurosawa for the original Star Wars movies. In Rogue One, directed by Gareth Edwards, we can still see the deep influence of the legendary Japanese director’s Samurai films.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
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the force of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai
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films run strong in the Star Wars
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universe now that we’re onto our eighth
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movie road one directed by Gareth
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Edwards the presence of legendary
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Japanese film director Kurosawa is
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arguably stronger than ever
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George Lucas adapted the original
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trilogy’s plot from Kurosawa’s hidden
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fortress George Lucas has always said
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that Star Wars is influenced by the
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hidden fortress and if you do see the
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hidden fortress you see it right away
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you see the characters how they are
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drawn from the hidden fortress but I
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think also the thing that Lucas takes
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from Kurosawa is that combination of
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epic and intimate we get to know each
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character and how well developed they
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are and that’s something Kurosawa always
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did the word jedi comes from the jedi
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geeky japanese for period film which is
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what Kurosawa samurai films were the
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lightsaber battles visually recall
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samurai fight seems the stormtrooper and
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Darth Vader costumes come from samurai
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armor and the Star Wars Wife is
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reminiscent of Kurosawa’s pension for
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wipes Lucas even used Kurosawa’s
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creations as models for specific
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characters and scenes in robe 1 to root
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in Wei and Bay’s Melba’s both feel
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almost plucked out of a samurai movie
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chroot swordsmanship fighting style and
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philosophy seem inspired by the samurai
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kenjutsu and bayes’s casual swagger
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evokes the devil-may-care charisma of
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Kurosawa’s star actor Toshiro Mifune me
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the powerful deaths of these two
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characters underline what the force is
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force is with me and I fear nothing it’s
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a faith it’s a closeness to the will of
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the universe and it feels a lot like the
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samurai code or Bushido Lucas has said
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what fascinated him most about hidden
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fortress was that it was told from the
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perspective of the two lowest characters
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in fortress that’s two peasants in Star
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Wars Lucas gave us c-3po and r2d2 in
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rogue one we see the perspective of lo
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individuals expanded to that of a low
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elected the Rebel Alliance as a group
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both Kurosawa and Star Wars build
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stories on individuals fighting to be
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moral within a corrupt system he often
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uses epic themes and he explores moral
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dilemmas especially how to be a moral
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person in a corrupt world the question
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that had political relevance for him how
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does an individual maintain their moral
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standing in a world that is corrupt
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especially in a society where he saw the
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corruption to be institutionalized one
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of his distinctive themes is the notion
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of how to be a good human being in a
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world that is discourages that broke one
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sends a strong message that a
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civilization is only as great as the way
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it treats its most vulnerable citizen
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regardless of what galaxy and Kurosawa’s
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samurai films or in Star Wars we’re
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dealing with a long time ago sometime
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between this past and the history we
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know thriving interplanetary settlement
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somehow came to destruction his
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influence on the Western is something
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that’s hard to underestimate in fact the
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term for his films is Easterns and
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they’re sort of about the same topic
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which is this kind of imaginary version
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of the past and its influence on the
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presence in the reimagined pasts of both
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Kurosawa and Star Wars we grasp that
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society doesn’t always progress
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sometimes it goes backwards or
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self-destructs but we might learn
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something from both visions to make the
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best of our own present in rogue one
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Jin’s cause feels directed at us today
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this is your chance to make real
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difference urging us to care for the
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people across our globe who are
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suffering at the hands of abuse of power
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the ending of rogue one is different
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from other Star Wars movies in a big way
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everybody dies like samurai the
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characters willingly embrace honorable
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deaths in the service of a cause much
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greater than any individual they and we
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make peace with it before the end comes
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and that’s because we’re actually less
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invested in the characters survival than
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in their mission we urgently care about
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the Death Star plans which represent the
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last hope of the rebellions cause for
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human rights and freedom rogue one
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accomplishes
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happy ending even though all the good
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guys die because as they keep saying
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hope is alive in both the details and
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the deep themes the Kurosawa influence
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shows all over rogue one even at the
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stage when we’re this far removed from
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Lucas’s personal influence the rebel
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cause echoes the values of the samurai
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code honorable service courageous
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sacrifice and fighting for the hope of
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all for more subscribe to our channel
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[Music]
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This post was previously published on Youtube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
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