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Transcript provided by Youtube:
00:01
the force of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai
00:04
films run strong in the Star Wars
00:05
universe now that we’re onto our eighth
00:08
movie road one directed by Gareth
00:10
Edwards the presence of legendary
00:12
Japanese film director Kurosawa is
00:14
arguably stronger than ever
00:17
George Lucas adapted the original
00:19
trilogy’s plot from Kurosawa’s hidden
00:21
fortress George Lucas has always said
00:24
that Star Wars is influenced by the
00:25
hidden fortress and if you do see the
00:27
hidden fortress you see it right away
00:28
you see the characters how they are
00:30
drawn from the hidden fortress but I
00:33
think also the thing that Lucas takes
00:35
from Kurosawa is that combination of
00:37
epic and intimate we get to know each
00:39
character and how well developed they
00:41
are and that’s something Kurosawa always
00:42
did the word jedi comes from the jedi
00:45
geeky japanese for period film which is
00:47
what Kurosawa samurai films were the
00:49
lightsaber battles visually recall
00:51
samurai fight seems the stormtrooper and
00:54
Darth Vader costumes come from samurai
00:56
armor and the Star Wars Wife is
00:58
reminiscent of Kurosawa’s pension for
01:00
wipes Lucas even used Kurosawa’s
01:02
creations as models for specific
01:04
characters and scenes in robe 1 to root
01:11
in Wei and Bay’s Melba’s both feel
01:13
almost plucked out of a samurai movie
01:15
chroot swordsmanship fighting style and
01:17
philosophy seem inspired by the samurai
01:19
kenjutsu and bayes’s casual swagger
01:22
evokes the devil-may-care charisma of
01:24
Kurosawa’s star actor Toshiro Mifune me
01:31
the powerful deaths of these two
01:33
characters underline what the force is
01:35
force is with me and I fear nothing it’s
01:39
a faith it’s a closeness to the will of
01:42
the universe and it feels a lot like the
01:44
samurai code or Bushido Lucas has said
01:49
what fascinated him most about hidden
01:51
fortress was that it was told from the
01:52
perspective of the two lowest characters
01:54
in fortress that’s two peasants in Star
01:57
Wars Lucas gave us c-3po and r2d2 in
02:00
rogue one we see the perspective of lo
02:02
individuals expanded to that of a low
02:04
elected the Rebel Alliance as a group
02:08
both Kurosawa and Star Wars build
02:10
stories on individuals fighting to be
02:13
moral within a corrupt system he often
02:15
uses epic themes and he explores moral
02:19
dilemmas especially how to be a moral
02:21
person in a corrupt world the question
02:23
that had political relevance for him how
02:34
does an individual maintain their moral
02:36
standing in a world that is corrupt
02:38
especially in a society where he saw the
02:41
corruption to be institutionalized one
02:43
of his distinctive themes is the notion
02:45
of how to be a good human being in a
02:47
world that is discourages that broke one
02:49
sends a strong message that a
02:51
civilization is only as great as the way
02:53
it treats its most vulnerable citizen
02:57
regardless of what galaxy and Kurosawa’s
03:00
samurai films or in Star Wars we’re
03:02
dealing with a long time ago sometime
03:04
between this past and the history we
03:06
know thriving interplanetary settlement
03:09
somehow came to destruction his
03:10
influence on the Western is something
03:12
that’s hard to underestimate in fact the
03:14
term for his films is Easterns and
03:16
they’re sort of about the same topic
03:18
which is this kind of imaginary version
03:20
of the past and its influence on the
03:22
presence in the reimagined pasts of both
03:24
Kurosawa and Star Wars we grasp that
03:26
society doesn’t always progress
03:28
sometimes it goes backwards or
03:30
self-destructs but we might learn
03:32
something from both visions to make the
03:34
best of our own present in rogue one
03:36
Jin’s cause feels directed at us today
03:38
this is your chance to make real
03:40
difference urging us to care for the
03:42
people across our globe who are
03:43
suffering at the hands of abuse of power
03:47
the ending of rogue one is different
03:49
from other Star Wars movies in a big way
03:51
everybody dies like samurai the
03:54
characters willingly embrace honorable
03:56
deaths in the service of a cause much
03:58
greater than any individual they and we
04:00
make peace with it before the end comes
04:02
and that’s because we’re actually less
04:04
invested in the characters survival than
04:06
in their mission we urgently care about
04:09
the Death Star plans which represent the
04:11
last hope of the rebellions cause for
04:13
human rights and freedom rogue one
04:15
accomplishes
04:15
happy ending even though all the good
04:17
guys die because as they keep saying
04:19
hope is alive in both the details and
04:22
the deep themes the Kurosawa influence
04:24
shows all over rogue one even at the
04:26
stage when we’re this far removed from
04:28
Lucas’s personal influence the rebel
04:30
cause echoes the values of the samurai
04:32
code honorable service courageous
04:34
sacrifice and fighting for the hope of
04:37
all for more subscribe to our channel
04:40
[Music]
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The post Rogue One Explained: The Force of Kurosawa in Star Wars appeared first on The Good Men Project.
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