RSSMr. Kurosawa Would Be 100 Today
Mar 23
Reflections, Respect/Admire No Comments
Akira Kurosawa would have been 100 years old today had he not passed away in 1998. He created an incredibly legacy of film. Not only did he leave behind some of the most magnificent movies to have ever been made, but he influenced generations of film makers around the world.
In an essay on the criterion collection’s website, Donald Richie says that Kurosawa “was interested only in practice — how to make films more convincing, more real, more right.” If the theories of other realities are true, then we can hope that maybe Kurosawa achieved his goal in at least one of them. Some of us, though, would say he achieved that goal here. In this one.
Throne of Blood and Rashomon are among some of the greatest movies I’ve ever seen. Brilliant is thrown around too casually today, but those were and are brilliant. They are just as vibrant and engaging now as when they were first put to the screen.
For me, though, the saddest part about celebrating a genius in any artistic medium, is what we are missing out on. If we stop and think would he was able to create with comparatively just the barest essentials, how big of a masterpiece could he have made with a world of technology at his hand?