Essential Art House: Hidden Fortress

UPC: 715515047012

Studio: Criterion

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Violence, Suitable for Children]

Summary: Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (original Japanese title: Kakushi Toride No San Akunin) stars Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara as a pair of misfit soldiers. Running from the enemy after a disastrous defeat, the two soldiers fall in with general Toshiro Mifune, who is in search of a huge cache of gold. Mifune is also desirous of freeing princess-in-exile Misa Uehara from the clutches of the evil victorious army. Several large and small battles ensue before Mifune can realize his goal. If the plot of Hidden Fortress sounds vaguely familiar to you, try this exercise: substitute two robots for Chiaki and Fujiwara, Mark Hamill for Mifune, and Carrie Fisher for Uehara. George Lucas himself admitted that Hidden Fortress was a principal inspiration for his Star Wars saga; stretching the point farther, both Hidden Fortress and Star Wars had their roots in John Ford's The Searchers. Originally released in a 137-minute form, The Hidden Fortress was sliced to ribbons by its American distributors, and years later received extensive restoration. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Adventure

Awards: Silver Bear for Best Director – Berlin International Film Festival

Essential Art House: Hidden Fortress

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 06/16/2009

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cinemascope

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 139 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Subtitles: English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Essential Art House: The Hidden Fortress
1. Lost [4:46]
2. Wanted [4:01]
3. Capture and Escape [5:35]
4. "Find the Princess" [4:35]
5. Followed [1:40]
6. The General [5:59]
7. "A Hidden Fortess" [4:15]
8. Rokurota Makabe [5:17]
9. "It's a Girl" [4:34]
10. Princess Yuki [4:01]
11. Doubting a General [2:27]
12. The Truth [4:29]
13. Trusting Fools [5:10]
14. Leaving the Fortress [3:53]
15. Running Away [4:04]
16. Botched Escape [5:30]
17. Tricking the Guards [6:28]
18. A Woman's Worth [3:51]
19. Princess Yuki's Command [3:22]
20. Rokurota in Action [2:39]
21. Duel [8:10]
22. In the Rain [5:52]
23. Perfect Cover [2:47]
24. Fire Festival [5:02]
25. Fool's Gold [4:02]
26. Pressing Onward [2:18]
27. Drawing Fire [4:07]
28. The Price of Friendship [6:27]
29. A Change of Heart [5:17]
30. "Lucky to Have Our Heads" [3:44]
31. Arrested and Rewarded [3:54]
32. Color Bars [:00]

Michael Costello

Kurosawa's light adventure is probably best known as one of the primary inspirations for George Lucas' Star Wars (1977), but it's a masterful entertainment in its own right. Toshiro Mifune stars as a famous general who uses a couple of clownish peasants to help him transport a gold shipment and a volatile young princess through enemy territory. The film was the pioneering effort of the Japanese film industry in the use of the widescreen ratio, and, in a sense, Kurosawa's brilliantly supple deployment of the process is the star of the film. Especially in the early sequences in the prison and the quarry, the director achieves extraordinary effects of mass and scale as he suggests the smallness of the squabbling peasants and the stature of General Rokurota. He also uses the available space to spread the characters as far as he can, expressing the common distrust that is, at times, the only emotion these four very differently motivated characters share. Kurosawa has often suggested to his actors that they imagine themselves as various animals in an effort to elicit a more overtly physical performance, and that seems to be the case here, as the slightly exaggerated ensemble acting style enhances the humor of a film that is sometimes reminiscent of an early silent. Mifune, a virtuoso of physical acting, did all his own stunts, the most impressive being a horse-mounted pursuit while swinging a sword. Like Star Wars, the film has something of the quality of a fairy tale, one which can be appreciated both by children and adults. ~ Michael Costello, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Tadao Nakamaru  Actor 
Toshiko Higuchi  Actor 
Koji Mitsui  Actor 
Ikio Sawamura  Actor 
Kichijiro Ueda  Actor 
Akira Kurosawa  Director 
Akira Kurosawa  Producer 
Akira Kurosawa  Screenwriter 
Hideo Oguni  Screenwriter 
Masumi Fujimoto  Producer 
Shinobu Hashimoto  Screenwriter 
Ryuzo Kikushima  Screenwriter 
Masaru Sato  Composer (Music Score) 
Toshiro Mifune  Actor 
Misa Uehara  Actor 
Kamatari Fujiwara  Actor 
Minoru Chiaki  Actor 
Susumu Fujita  Actor 
Takashi Shimura  Actor 
Eiko Miyoshi  Actor 

Country: Japan