robertguttman It's almost impossible not to like "The Hidden Fortress". It is an action-adventure-comedy with something to please just about everyone. Created by one of the greatest film directors of all time, the movie follows a diverse set of characters through a series of more cliff-hanging adventures than any movie this side of "Raiders of the Lost Arc". As the noble and loyal samurai general in disguise who leads the cast, Toshiro Mifune was in absolute top form in this film. Sharing his adventures are a plucky and willful young princess and two hilariously foolish, venal and horny peasants. Their task is to convey the princess, along with a large cache of hidden gold, through enemy lines to safety. It's not a complicated plot but, in the hands of director Akira Kurosawa, it becomes a veritable roller-coaster ride of thrills. For those who insist that they don't care for black-and- white movies, or movies with subtitles, just be assured that those issues really don't matter in this case. If you don't enjoy this, you probably won't like anything.

Rotaconte90 One of the weakest Kurosawa's works. It has weak character development, although i loved Toshiro Mifune in Throne of Blood, Rashomon, 7 Samurai and the others, i disliked him in this, he behaves like typical feudal bourgeois, arrogant he treats two poor peasants like slaves, why are they so guilty of ? wanting a little money ? i guess it's realistic in the feudal word to view lower class like that like in Sansho the Bailiff but at least there is a good change in it. In this movie you'll see the weakest soldiers i'll ever saw, except the ones in Gary Daniel's movies. Mifune just takes their spear from their hands like they have baby strength. Some of the parts are OK, but some try comedy and humor that doesn't work with me. Over all you can skip this Kurosawa movie you won't miss much.

Leofwine_draca In an interview, Akira Kurosawa said that he made THE HIDDEN FORTRESS as a deliberate counterpart to the earlier, darker films of his career; he'd just come off the back of his MACBETH adaptation, THRONE OF BLOOD (and, let's face it, things don't get much darker) and he wanted to make a lighter piece of entertainment for a change. THE HIDDEN FORTRESS is certainly that: it's a humour-filled adventure filled with action and spectacle. It's also one of my less favourite Kurosawa movies.I like darkness. I like dark, violent movies that explore the depths of the human soul. Comedy has never really appealed me to me – my tastes in humour are very subjective – and this film has a lot of comedy. In fact, pretty much every scene featuring the two cowardly peasants is played for laughs, and their appeal quickly wears thin. I began looking forward to the (few) moments they weren't around, and dreading their return to the fray.Still, the rest of the story is a lot of fun. Toshiro Mifune enjoys himself in a lighter role for a change, and gets to take part in some for-the-time spectacular action scenes; his duel with a rival general is particularly engaging. The scene-stealer of the piece is Misa Uehara, playing a princess who disguises herself as a mute for much of the production. Uehara is exceptional when given the opportunity to throw off the shackles surrounding the roles usually given to women in historical dramas and an intriguing forerunner to the later femme fatales who would populate Japanese samurai cinema come the 1970s.The story, involving the transportation of some gold across enemy country, is solid, but the plot does take a great deal of time to get moving. I wasn't very involved for the exceptionally long-winded introduction, but things get a lot better in the second half, when the genuine threat of discovery and death adds suspense to keep things moving along nicely. THE HIDDEN FORTRESS may not be an example of Kurosawa at his most profound, but it's a fine example of the director at work in a different, non-serious genre for a change.

Terrell Howell (KnightsofNi11) Here we have another great samurai epic from masterful Akira Kurosawa. This film is one of the many fantastic samurai films Kurosawa created in his hay-day. This one falls in line with the long stretch of these great films, and stands as just another great piece of art from Kurosawa. The one thing that does allow it to stand apart is it's being told from the perspective of two of the lesser characters. The story follows two thieves who, in the midst of a territory war, are searching for hidden gold. They meet up with a samurai general of one of the warring clans. They team up with this samurai (played by the always magnificent Toshiro Mifune) as he attempts to get his princess out of the dangerous territory and escort her to safety. However, the best part of this plot is that it is credited as being one of the major influences for George Lucas' Star Wars (1977). The two peasant thieves the plot follows are the basis for the characters of C-3PO and R2-D2. In fact, these two characters had a major influence on character archetypes and practically set the archetype for the goofy pair of friends we see time after time.The Hidden Fortress, overall, has a much lighter tone than some of Kurosawa's other films set in the same setting. While most of his films have that element of subtle dark humor, The Hidden Fortress could be considered a true comedy at times, mainly due to the shenanigans of the two oddball protagonists. But at it's core, The Hidden Fortress is a true action adventure film that has plenty of fun doing what it's doing. It has its darker moments, but it stays above the dark water for the majority of the film. It's plenty entertaining and the story never dwindles or drags. The two peasants are incredibly entertaining, and while they are more caricatures than anything else, they add so much to the film and are really what drive this film's lighter heart.This film might be lighter, but Kurosawa obviously doesn't skimp on the artistry for a second. He heavily employs the use of very long takes for this film, which has a great effect in unexpected places. Kurosawa artistically blends comic relief and more serious action in such a great way that it is easy to get lost in the film when looking at it as a whole. There is no shortage of immaculate action sequences that are as stylistically brilliant as they are awesome and entertaining to watch. There is one particular duel involving spears that stands out in my mind as a near perfect blend of being ridiculously cool, as well as beautiful to witness unfold. It's hard not to be at least mildly entertained by this exciting film.The Hidden Fortress doesn't quite reach to the same level of epic grandeur that some of Kurosawa's other samurai films do, but it fits right in with his collection of great films. No two Kurosawa films are quite the same so it is hard to say that any of his films don't stand out among the rest but if I had to choose one I'd say it was The Hidden Fortress. The highest point of this film would definitely be it's influence on not only Star Wars but the character archetype the two peasant friends fill. The Hidden Fortress is simply just another great film from an amazing director.