Greatest Filmmaker Ever !

I was recently pressed by a friend/film buff who wanted to know who I thought was the greatest filmmaker - presuming I really knew something about the cinema - however vanity kicked in and I thought of the usual suspects: Lucas, Kazan, Lean, Peckinpah, Coppola, Scorsese, Ford, Houston, Fellini, Hitchcock, Stone but for me the best filmmaker ever has got to be Akira Kurosawa, followed closely by Stanley Kubrick.

Kurosawa directed 30 films, but those 30 were the most influential in cinema history.  As a Japanese filmmaker, and not a product of mainstream Hollywood, Kurosawa's films were neglected - but as time went by the genius of his film-making could not be denied.

In addition to film making, Kurosawa was a writer (he penned most of his own screenplays) and a painter.  He first won critical acclaim with the movie, 'Drunken Angel' (1948). Followed by 'Rashomon' , which premiered in Tokyo in 1950 and was the first Kurosawa film to go global and introduced the Western market to his films. After 'Rashomon', Kurosawa made a string of films which are now considered masterpieces which many other film-makers used as "study guides" in developing their directing style.  These iconic films included: Ikiru (To Live) released in 1952, 'Seven Samurai' (1954), and 'Yojimbo' (1961).

 Kurosawa painting

Kurosawa began his film career in 1910, working as an assistant director and learning the craft of film making.  As noted, Kurosawa wrote or co-wrote all of his films' scripts and frequently wrote screenplays for other films in various genres. For example, 'Stray Dog', released in 1949, is considered to be the best Japanese detective movie ever made as it is not only a great thriller but explores the mood of Japan during the postwar recovery (and incidentally was adopted from a novel written by Kurosawa).  The film incorporates, for the first time, actual documentary footage of war-torn Tokyo and is considered to be the father of all contemporary police dramas and buddy cop films and TV shows to this day.

Flanked by disciples Lucas & Spielberg

Kurosawa's film making genius is undisputed. 'Seven Samurai', for example, is regarded as the greatest Japanese film ever made and was the basis for the highly regarded Hollywood classic Western, 'The Magnificent Seven'.  His film, 'Record of a Living Being' (1954) is today regarded by many cinema historians and modern film makers as one of the best films dealing with the psychological effects of global nuclear war.

In 1958, Kurosawa's 'The Hidden Fortress' (an action-adventure comedy/drama) which although not critically acclaimed as one of his best efforts, was the major influence for George Lucas (which he has widely attested to) in the development of the 'Star Wars' saga.  It is not unusual for Kurosawa's works to be 're-adapted' into what have become, in their own right, cinema classics.  For example, 'Yojimbo'
(The Bodyguard) was adopted by Sergio Leone in the making of the classic 'A Fist Full of Dollars' and the start of the spaghetti western genre.

Kurosawa On Set

In 1966, Kurosawa entered the big-budget world of Hollywood film production with the WWII classic film 'Tora, Tora, Tora', this endeavor proved to be a disaster for Kurosawa and he was eventually fired from the project. This marked a low point in his career which lasted until 1977 when young film makers openly began to pay homage to 'the master'.  These included, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola (who collaborated with Kurosawa in the production of  'Kagemusha', a film about a thief hired to double as a Japanese warlord. 'Kagemusha' won numerous awards including the Palme d'Or at the 1980 Cannes Festival.

Kurosawa's next film was 'Ran' (based upon Shakespeare's 'King Lear')  it is considered by Kurosawa as his finest work. Next came the classic, 'Dreams', which, for me, is my favorite Kurosawa film and one of the best films ever made. Kurosawa wrote the screenplay and it is based entirely upon images of his own dreams. Steven Spielberg, who considered Kurosawa his idol and mentor, got Warner Brothers to fund the production of 'Dreams'.

By 1995, with his health failing, Kurosawa slipped into the background and in 1998 died at the age of 88. In addition, to being the cinema's greatest director, Kurosawa was a painter - many of his paintings were used as storyboards by film crews in constructing sets for his films. A fanatic for detail, Kurosawa went to extremes in preparing for his films.  For 'Seven Samurai', he created biographies for all of the samurai, including what they wore and ate, how they walked, talked, and even how they tied their shoes.

Kurosawa's films all dealt, in some way, with moral/ethical themes and this 'way' of film making has been copied by most modern directors and film makers who openly admit that Kurosawa was a major influence in their own development as film makers: Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Roman Polanski, Bernardo Bertolucci, who stated that "Kurosawa's movies pushed me, sucked me into being a filmmaker."  Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Ford Coppola, who said, "He didn't make one masterpiece or two masterpieces. He made, you know, eight masterpieces". And as Martin Scorsese remarked, "Let me say it simply.  Akira Kurosawa was my Master, and the Master of so many other film makers over the years. It's hard to comprehend his influence on the cinema."

So, I too pay homage to the Master. Yes, Kurosawa is my favorite (and the greatest) film maker ever.

Jim Lavorato