borders
by
Douglas Messerli
Ryūzō
Kikushima, Hideo Oguni, Shinobu
Hashimoto, and Akira Kurosawa (screenplay), Akira Kurosawa (director) 隠し砦の三悪人 (Kakushi toride no san akunin) (The Hidden Fortress) / 1958
If,
when first watching Akira Kurosawa’s remarkable epic
travelogue-adventure-comedy, The Hidden
Fortress, you might think you’ve seen this all before, well just think back
to the premiere of George Lucas's Star
Wars, since he even admits to having been highly influenced by Kurosawa’s
film. So, let’s try to forget plot, a somewhat affable tale of two
would-be-warrior fools who are caught up in a battle which they never had
imagined between the warrior Japanese kingdoms of the Akizuki and Yamana clans,
and the friendlier Hayakawa territories.
This is truly a story of “borders,” both social and geographigal, how to
get through one to the other and another, much like the migrant travelers from
Central America to the US today. The story hardly matters.
Yes, there is a highly impudent princess
of the Akizuki clan (Misa Uehara) who, hidden away in that fortress, must be
moved out of harm by her loyal general Rokurota Makabe (the also loyal Kurosawa
actor, Toshiro Mifune)—and, yes, he certainly enchants us with his daring
sword-duels, his sweeping horse-borne salvations, etc—but it is Kurosawa’s
comedic actors, Tahei and Mataschici (Minoru Chiaki and Kamatari Fujiwara) who
are at the center of this tale, and whose plan to escape through the various
borders that prevail, are at the center of Kurosawa’s film.
Even Rokurota recognizes that their rude
plan of escape is worthy of attention, and he uses them, with bribes of gold to
help in his attempt to lead his princess out of harm. In order to do that, of
course, he has to convince the imperious princess to become a mute, literally muting
her own “noblewoman” voice.
That’s all you need to know. The rest is
played out in a spectacular, often comic, series of adventures in which or
comic heroes are asked to climb mountains of loose rock, join in extravagant
escapes, face execution, and simply run for it again and again. Like another
version of Laurel & Hardy (or the Beckettian substitutes throughout his
writing), Tahei and Mataschici become mere robots—which Lucas brilliantly
perceived them to be—who keep the story boiling, while rushing head-long into
terrifying territory, all the while trying to grab on to any money or sex—quite
unsuccessfully—that might show up in their purvey.
If these two are completely incompetent, they
are also, as Rokurota perceives, survivors, or, if nothing else, talismans who,
despite themselves, represent the faith of the oppressed Akizukis. Just by traveling
with them Rokurota and the princess Yuki are saved. They are clumsy, dangerous,
greedy, impetuous cowards, but they are also heroes in their own voyage
forward, leading the general and his princess out of danger. Carrying wood,
like the peasants they truly are, they bear the wealth (the gold) of a kingdom
upon their backs without even knowing it.
If they cringe and run away at the very
first sign of terror, they serve as signals for the others of what they too
must flee. Their simple instincts make it clear to the more removed social
superiors what they to need to resist. Their stupid plots represent brilliant
perceptions on how to survive.
The hidden fortress of this film is not,
in fact, the beautiful country home wherein the princess lives among the
birches, but the fortress of her fellow travelers, who rush into danger without
even recognizing, at times, what that entails. They are there, constantly, despite
their constant attempts to escape, to protect her and her general, men who know
how to cross borders better than any expert on geological frontiers.
I was amazed on the day that President
Trump ordered 5000 more soldiers to protect our already over-protected border with
Mexico against what he described as an army threatening the country, I had
watched this film, where two peasants knew how to escape and move into what had
become enemy territory, saving a princess and her protector in the process, to
claim a new heritage in a new world.
Los Angeles,
November 1, 2018
Reprinted
from World Cinema Review (November
2018).
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