THE HIDDEN FORTRESS

THE HIDDEN FORTRESS

  

BIFF! BAM!  PAFF!

I read that Kurosawa wanted to make THE HIDDEN FORTRESS a rip-roaring adventure extravaganza. He wanted it to play like a fast paced American serial. He wanted there to be never ending cliff hangers as the heroes are thrown into one wild mess after another in which they’d have to use their wits and brawn to escape.

The plot seems to set things up right: A princess and a warrior have to bring a bunch of gold to safety while being chased by an evil army. Good. That’s bargain basement, but solid, straight forward action narrative.   

But the film doesn’t focus on that.  

The main characters of HIDDEN FORTRESS are actually two petty and weak peasents that want nothing to do with all the excitement. The film focuses on them for the first hour until they accidentally stumble on the princess and are forced to tag along. Do they learn the importance of being a good person? No. Instead, they attempt at every turn to run away with the gold.

George Lucas has gone on record that THE HIDDEN FORTRESS was a big inspiration for STAR WARS.  Sure, both films share a princess, a rugged warrior type, and two bickering sidekicks, but beyond a few cribbed shots and ideas, the similarities are not lavish. Both films went for the ‘high flying adventure’ type storytelling, but they approached the situation in two very distinct ways. STAR WARS is the more straight ahead fare while FORTRESS takes the outsiders perspective looking in.

THE HIDDEN FORTRESS plays more like an ANTI-ADVENTURE SERIAL. There’s a lot of funny going on, and there are a few sprinkles of action, but the peasant’s reactions to the excitement is one of revolt and fear. They ground the high adventure by making it clear that you’d have to be crazy to get involved. The two peasants don’t want to do the right thing.  They just want to survive, do as little work as possible, and get rich quick.

The filmmaking in the first half isn’t as propulsive as I’d like, because there isn’t really that much going on in terms of real adventuring.   Kurosawa is in RASHOMON mode here, painting in broad stylistic strokes, heightened by his impeccable widescreen framing. The shots are beautiful, but the subject matter is minor. We follow the two peasants as they bicker, play dead to get out of dangerous situations and run off to avoid danger. Some of it is epically mounted, like the revolt they get swept up in, but it’s mostly a lot of back and forth as they argue about gold…about surviving…and then argue more about surviving and gold. In any other film, this would all be set-up for them to step up in the last act and be heroes, but that never happens. The climax actually has them running off and not getting involved! They are one note characters who never learn a lesson (beyond a superficial final sequence) or evolve beyond paying lip service about ‘Staying friends’ before stabbing each other in the back.

Mifune’s Samurai eventually shows up and he’s the one that the pro-activeness surrounds. His character is brisk and direct, but not above playing people like a fiddle. Kurosawa decides to have his cake and eat it too by moving away from the peasants and focusing on the Princess and the Warrior plot for a little while. It’s pretty standard adventuring stuff, but if I kind of wish he had stayed with the peasants. I always love seeing big events from the perspective of outsiders not involved

The one big action scene in the film happens out of nowhere. The gang accidentally tip off some guards of their identity and Mifune is forced to give chase on a horse. He cuts the men down, but accidentally stumbles upon the base of the enemy general – who challenges him to a staff duel. The fight is thrilling, impeccably edited, and masterfully choreographed, but it’s just not enough to sustain a whole adventure film.  I NEEDED MORE DAMMIT!

The one character who gets to evolve is the princess. She is humbled by what she witnesses. She decides that she will be a more understanding ruler. Okay. Not earth shattering, but it’s the bare mechanics of having a character learn an IMPORTANT LESSON before the end.   

So, why did Kurosawa decide to focus on the two wimpy characters? Was it to circumvent the expectations of the genre? There’s a million straight ahead tales of daring-doo, but how many about people being scared out of their wits being the focus through the majority of it? I could understand if he stuck to the perspective of the peasants, but he doesn’t, and focuses a number of scenes on the generic quest of Mifune and the Princess. He has his cake and eats it too, which results it a schizophrenic film that snaps in two different and ultimately unsatisfying directions.

I’ve always been a firm believer that expectations make all the difference. It’s very difficult to go a film completely open minded. I went into THE HIDDEN FORTRESS expecting an adventure film, but only got a slight dose of adventure (and I’m sure many would argue this point, but it’s as always, highly subjective) than it’s difficult for me not to be disappointed. I’ve noticed from the reviews that I read that most people highlight a few specific scenes (The horseback warrior, the pantomime scene and the dance sequence) while the rest is left as broad outline because there’s so much darn filler.  

In retrospect, I can see what Kurosawa was doing, and if I were to watch the film again I think I could enjoy it on a different level, but on my first viewing it was a bit of disappointment. .