So another new feature idea that I had, why don’t I review films that are fifty years old this year (so films from 1961) to see if they are still good in the 2011! This works out quite nicely because I quite recently watched a film from 1961, Yojimbo, and here are my thoughts on it!
Akira Kurosawa is probably one of the most influential directors in film history, or so it could be argued. It is within the 1950’s that we see most of his most influential works; Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood and Hidden Fortress had heavy influences upon western cinema. Either directly, such as The Magnificent Seven, which took its story straight from Seven Samurai, or more subtly, such as the inspirations for Star Wars: A new Hope found within Hidden Fortress. By the beginning of the 1960’s then, Akira had already had all these films under his belt, along with many others, and was already an acclaimed director. However, after the box office failure of his first independent production team production, The Bad Sleep released in 1960, Akira returned from the modern setting to something much more traditional, and hence Yojimbo was born.
