Akira Kurosawa produces a taut samurai adventure of fear, greed, intimidation, theft, bumbling, self-sacrifice, cowardice, courage, betrayal, pantomime, song and dance, attempted rape, and other hilarity in this 1958 mini-epic that famously inspired the Star Wars saga. I detail the connections between the characters and events in this with those in the Star Wars movies, ridicule the central characters, and boldly suggest that this movie needs a villain like Darth Vader, all while avoiding pronouncing almost all the Japanese names or making ethnically insensitive jokes. And I never mention Jar-Jar Binks (ptooh!) once.
Note: I mistakenly say that, in the original Star Wars movie, the planet Dantooine gets destroyed by the Death Star, but it’s Alderaan that gets destroyed despite Leia’s lie, because they just happen to be near Alderaan. Also, I accidentally say that Darth Vader rather than Obi-Wan gets cut down and becomes a “force ghost.”
Wait for my countdown to start the film with the Janus title logo. (66 MB)
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Wow. I never thought I would see a fan commentary on this. I haven’t listened to it yet but I hope you know that the “Story Synopsis” of Star Wars was very close to THF in more ways than the “bureaucrats” (before they became droids). There was even a little of Sanjuro too with “Gen. Luke Skywalker” mentoring a group of young rebels.
If you haven’t read the early drafts there is a great site that has most of them.
http://www.starwarz.com/starkiller/scripts.htm
Keep up the good work.
PS have you seen “Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter”? It is a 1974 Hammer horror film with a really interesting story focusing on a samurai sword wielding vampire hunter and his Q-like hunchback assistant. There is a special edition with the writer-Director (Brian Clemens, who wrote and produced The Avengers series) and co-star, Caroline Munro, commentary. I found it in a five dolor bin at walmart. It might make for an interesting commentary as it’s focus is on the good guy.
Thanks! I’d never heard of Captain Kronos – Vampire hunter before. I’ll keep an eye out for it.