Topic: movies that influenced Star Wars

[JDeck]

  I finally took some time to watch Hidden Fortress. This will be my last installment even though there are many more movies that influenced Star Wars. Hidden Fortress starts off with two peasents wandering around arguing with each other. They split ways and both end up being captured by the invading forces. They found each other again in a labor camp and were able to escape. This all reminds me of R2 and 3PO on Tattoine. They wander the hills and run across a strange man living in the mountains who ends up being the great general of the defeated clan. Unannounced to the peasents he is hiding the princess and 200 pieces of gold. The general is similar to Obi Wan Kenobi, he must take the princess and the gold to a safe place across the border to rebuild the clan. Long story short the general and the princess are captured and come face to face with the Dark Samurai. Who was once a general of the princesses' clan until he tuned. He has a change of heart and allows the princess to escape to rebuild the clan, just before her execution. Now the dark samurai is reminiscent of Vader obviously. There are many similarities with the star wars saga, but I won't get into all the details. If you're a Star Wars fan watch this movie.

[JDeck]

Time for another instalment of Movies That Influenced Star Wars.

  This time I'll be discussing The Mandalorian. The Mandalorian is basically about a warrior who suddenly finds himself being the caretaker of an infant. This basic idea derives from Lone Wolf and Cub.  This is a pretty old story with two different versions. One version a Samurai's wife is murdered and he sets out to avenge her death but along the way he has to care for his infant child. The other version is a Clan leader (Daimyo) dies, back in medieval Japan if a ruler dies the throne will go to the Grandson. The son will make the decisions until the Grandson is of age. The Daimyo
 dies, so a bodyguard has to escort the young grandson to Kyoto (capital city)  to be approved by the Shogunate. The problem is the rival clans want to kill the grandson and take over his territory. So the bodyguard after intense battles safely escorts the child to the capital. 

Season 1 episode 4 Sanctuary, was heavily influenced by Seven Samurai.  Seven Samurai is basically about a small farming village that learns a group of bandits plan to raid their farm after the crops ripen. So the farmers go to the nearest city to recruit samurai to help them fight the bandits. However they can only pay them with food. This is problematic because most samurai are proud and expect to be well paid for their services. Eventually they find seven Samurai to help them. The Samurai train the farmers to fight, and set up defences. They flood the rice patties to trap the enemy horses, much like in the Mandalorian with the AT-ST.
  People compare the Mandalorian to Spaghetti westerns, but actually Spaghetti westerns are influenced by Samurai movies. Especially Kurosawa's Yojimbo. Kurosawa sued the director of Fist Full of Dollars, won and made more money from his rewarded loyalties than he did from Yojimbo.

[Tamer]

This is a great thread. I am seeing how this influenced the Magnificant Seven too. Had to.

I love old Samurai movies.

Off to share this one the front pages.

[JDeck]

Seven Samurai definitely influenced Magnificent Seven, also A Bug's Life. Seven Samurai is one of my favorite movies. Every time I watch it, I like it even more. It's just really long, and the beginning is a little slow, especially with subtitles, but it's a really great movie.

Next time I'll post about how The Last Jedi was inspired by Three Outlaw Samurai. I'll have to go back and rewatch, to refresh my memory on the details.

[Starchaser]

Hey JDeck, nice job drawing out the associations. I've got to admit I haven't watched too many old samurai films, but role they played in Lucas' imagination is frequently cited and these connections you are making totally make sense. Anyway, nice job on the comparisons.

[JDeck]

Hey JDeck, nice job drawing out the associations. I've got to admit I haven't watched too many old samurai films, but role they played in Lucas' imagination is frequently cited and these connections you are making totally make sense. Anyway, nice job on the comparisons.

Thank you! Before doing this series I'd heard these movies were big inspirations, but I wasn't very familiar with them. Then I wondered what is Star Wars? What makes a Star Wars movie at it's core? So I started watching these movies, and made connections and I could see where he got some ideas. In watching these Samurai movies I really started liking the genre. There are so many good ones, even the ones not necessarily associated with Star Wars. They're really great stories, that get overlooked.