Akira Quotes

(on how he decided to do Per un pugno di dollari (1964)) I`d done "Rawhide" (1959) for about five years. The agency called and asked if I was interested in doing a western in Italy and Spain. I said, "Not particularly." They said, "Why don`t you give the script a quick look?" Well, I was kind of curious, so I read it, and I recognized it right away as Yojimbo (1961), a Kurosawa (Akira Kurosawa) film I had liked a lot. Over I went, taking the poncho with me - yeah the cape was my idea.

I was 18 when I saw Akira Kurosawa`s Shichinin no samurai (1954). After about 30 seconds, I realized that this was not just a cultural thing, it was universal. Years later, I read Bushido. It talked about many things that I strive for in my own life: loyalty, compassion, responsibility, the idea of looking back on your life and taking responsibility for everything you`ve ever done. I`m fascinated by the samurai and the samurai code - it`s one of the main reasons I wanted to make The Last Samurai (2003).

Most directors have one masterpiece by which they are known, or possibly two. Kurosawa has at least eight or nine. - on Akira Kurosawa

Speed Racer is good to cut your teeth on, but if anyone has not seen Akira, go get it.

The term `giant` is used too often to describe artists. But in the case of Akira Kurosawa, we have one of the rare instances where the term fits.

The person that probably stopped me in my tracks as a child - because I used to love to go to the cinema - was David Lean with Great Expectations (1946). I thought everything was somehow better than most of the other movies in terms of the way it looked - the way it was dramatised and the way it was photographed. In fact he was detailed from corner to corner and that is what I picked up with John Ford and then Kurosawa (Akira Kurosawa) - then Carol Reed, Michael Powell - those were all the fundamental characters at that time - and Orson Welles of course. There are Frenchmen too of course who will be remembered as well but I wasn`t open to the French cinema at that point - so it was American and English film directors - so those were the influences.

I was just a poor student. I had no interest in it. When I make a film the tacit contract with the audience is that I will give them some entertainment and not bore them. I have to do that. I just lay a message on them. Great filmmakers, like Ingmar Bergman or Akira Kurosawa or Federico Fellini, they`re very entertaining, their films are fun. Well, in college they never made it entertaining for me, they just bored me stiff.

I think he is the greatest example of all that an author of the cinema should be. I feel a fraternal affinity with his way of telling a story. - on Akira Kurosawa

I want to be able to make westerns like (Akira Kurosawa) makes westerns.

People talk about my signature. But I ask them if they ever saw Howard Hawks` films. They`re filled with overlapping dialog. Everything I`ve learned has come from watching other directors: Bergman (Ingmar Bergman, Fellini [Federico Fellini), Kurosawa (Akira Kurosawa), Huston (John Huston) and Renoir (Jean Renoir).