Akira Kurosawa once named his favourite Stanley Kubrick movie
We don’t blame the large majority of film lovers across the world for praising American cinema. After all the likes of Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg have been upheld as iconic directors for generations now. Yet, cinema thrives in every corner of the globe, with the very best filmmakers coming from Sweden, with Ingmar Bergman, Hungary, where Béla Tarr reigns supreme, and Japan, which birthed the remarkable talents of Akira Kurosawa.
Training for many years in the industry, Kurosawa emerged in 1943, whilst Japan was still locked in the bloody conflict of WWII, creating his feature film debut, Sanshiro Sugata, an action movie about a man learning the art of judo. Just one year later, he would aid the Japanese war effort, creating the propaganda film The Most Beautiful, which followed female factory workers and was shot in a documentary-like style.
Yet, it wasn’t until the final years of the 1940s that Kurosawa would truly come into his own, releasing the crime drama Drunken Angel in 1948, the stunningly stylish Stray Dog in 1949 and one of his all-time classics Rashomon, one year later. Kurosawa was indeed becoming known as one of the era’s greatest filmmakers, with the following decade proving to be his most fruitful.
Thanks to the likes of Ikiru, Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood, each released in the 1950s, Kurosawa attracted a great amount of interest, with such classic filmmakers as John Sturges, Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino stating that he was one of the very best to ever sit in the illustrious director’s chair. It certainly helped that his rise to prominence came alongside the flourishing of another cinematic master, with Stanley Kubrick releasing The Killing and Paths of Glory in the same decade.
Despite the pair working on opposite ends of the movie industry, they very much appreciated each other’s artistry, with Kurosawa having the pleasure of being able to watch the majority of Kubrick’s filmography before his death in 1998. He was, therefore, well-advised to be able to name his favourite of Kubrick’s movies, opting for the somewhat underrated 1975 period piece Barry Lyndon.
Whilst the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining are often the most highly-discussed Kubrick masterpieces, the director’s 1975 film has gone underloved for far too long. Starring Ryan O’Neal, the film follows the story of the titular Barry Lyndon, an Irish rogue who assumes the position of an aristocrat in 18th-century England, following the death of a successful husband.
Meanwhile, Kubrick has his own thoughts on Kurosawa, naming his 1950s classics Rashomon, Seven Samurai and Throne of Blood as his three favourites of the iconic Japanese filmmaker.
Take a look at the trailer for Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon below, and check out the undervalued movie beloved by Kurosawa and other critics alike.
