This is such an “adventure film” from the early days of the sets and plot. It reminded me a ton of what was happening with the Hollywood biblical epics at the time (THE TEN COMMANDMENTS was 2 years before this). Kurosawa must have been inspired a bit from them considering the whole opening moments with Tahei and Matashichi feels so grand. The lance/spear fight in the middle of the film was so good. The relationship between Rokurōta and Tadokoro is so fascinating and it shows during that fight. The moment afterwards when Rokurōta rides away that Mifune smiles in the most joyous and infectious way. Mifune is the best part of the film, which is why I did not care for being in the POV of Tahei and Matashichi. We spend so much time with them which becomes frustrating with how great Rokurōta as a character. They also are a little too much in terms of the comedic dummy characters that appear a lot in Japanese cinema. It’s also hard not to mention the STAR WARS of it all, and it seems like George Lucas also saw that the POV characters needed to be minimized when he conceptualized C-3PO and R2-D2. Although I think the thing that Lucas really took the most from here is the use of wipe transitions.
