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AKIRA KUROSAWA: A GIANT AMONG FILMMAKERS AND AMONG MEN
By Peter Grilli
Akira Kurosawa was a giant in every respect. Standing nearly six feet tall, he towered over most other Japanese of his generation. As the first Japanese film director with a name known around the world, he had a reputation as an artist and intellectual that was enormous and a stylistic influence on international filmmakers equally huge. No one interested in films or filmmaking can remain untouched by the magnitude of Kurosawa's vision or the power of his achievement.
Born in 1910 to a family of samurai background, Kurosawa created a body of work that reflects the legacy of his forebears. This is true not only of the subject matter of his films (many of which were costume dramas set in Japan's medieval or early modern past), but also of the humanism and social consciousness that animates his themes. "For me, the only question is how can man find happiness with others," he once commented. That question echoes both through his historical action films -- famous for their fast-paced action and sometimes savage brutality -- and through dramas set in postwar Japan that expose the corruption, the loss of personal identity, and the deadening force of bureaucratic or social pressure that characterizes much of contemporary life.
"I am my films -- nothing more, nothing less," said Kurosawa, with remarkable self-awareness. In a career that spanned nearly six decades, virtually every ounce of his creative energy was poured into his films. He had little small talk and no patience at all for incompetence or foolishness. He demanded of all his co-workers the same dedication and purposefulness that he himself brought to his work. He hated to analyze his films, insisting that whatever he had to say was there, up on the screen. He also was generally reluctant to reflect on his own past work: what invigorated him most were his plans for the next film. As a total film artist, as a screenwriter, as a director, and as a film editor, Kurosawa has rarely been matched by filmmakers in Japan or anywhere else in the world.
Taken as a whole, Kurosawa's 30 films carry a moral force, an intellectual
seriousness, and an artistic weight that few other directors can rival.
One must look elsewhere, beyond the realm of cinema, for suitable
comparisons -- to the plays of Shakespeare, the novels of Dostoyevsky,
the operas of Verdi, or the
symphonies of Beethoven.
All of these great creators fashioned an entire world in their works,
a vision of mankind not limited by the fears and compromises of lesser
men. Each in his own art defied all conventional wisdom regarding
form and style, transcending old standards to establish new ones.
Each created works that -- decades or centuries later -- strike with
an impact that neither time nor repeated analysis can diminish. Finally,
each addressed himself to a universal audience of common men, speaking
forcefully and directly, without concern for cultural boundaries or
relative levels of education or literacy. To this small group of supremely
creative geniuses we may add the name of Akira Kurosawa.
Top banner photos: A scene from Akira Kurosawa's
RED BEARD (Toshiro Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, and Terumi Niki), and a production still from DRUNKEN ANGEL (Michiyo Kogure and Toshiro Mifune). Photos courtesy of Photofest. |
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Akira Kurosawa during an interview
with the BBC. |
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Lord Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu) leads his
army in RAN. Photo: Studio Canal Image. |
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This program is available on DVD. |
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