The Hidden Fortress (1958)

I think there are three great thresholds or paradigm shifts in film that have contributed much excitement to film fans, since the great masters have had to cope with the changes and try them out. The first was the advent of sound, the second the introduction of a wider aspect ratio, and the third the use of colour.

All of the Kurosawas I've seen are beautiful poems. That this is Kurosawa's first film in Tohoscope, that is, in a wider aspect ratio than 4:3, is in itself an event. It would be 1970 when he would direct his first colour feature, although there's that effective use of colour in "High and Low" (1963).

He is able to utilize space so well that both are thoroughly magical, and here the complete impotence of our two antiheroes is reflected in the large emptiness surrounding them, that is, loneliness in vastness, as used by Antonioni to great effect in a few year's time.

I like his use of sand (and rock and boulders) in the film, especially since I'm also a big fan of Teshigahara and Imamura. They seem to have a life of their own, the rocks and boulders.

And his portrayal of the violence of the mob towards the beginning of the film; the most exhilarating sequence involving stairs, far outdoing the Odessa steps as the ultimate example of not only violence and aggression but appropriation of class dynamics (it's the mutiny here that falls down from above). And the way he shoots the crowded streets and interiors, something beautiful in itself and worth looking for. And Mifune on horseback, chasing the two Yamana men, both his hands on his sword; an iconic moment that might be equally only by Nakadai's similar moment, with his bow and arrow, in "Ran" (1985). And the rain!

And, and, and...