E.G. Marshall Obit

Akira Kurosawa, hailed as the "Emperor of Japanese Film" and a "Cinematic Giant" died Monday at the age of 88. His films have influenced Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and many American directors from the 1960s through the 1990s.

Kurosawa was, without a doubt, one of the most highly regarded directors of film history, and his awards were many. He first gained international notice in 1951 with Rashomon, a film about Truth and Human Nature that, despite lofty subject matter, remained a small and intimate study. He was awarded "Best Foreign Film" by the New York Film Critics Circle. Over the course of his 30-year film career, Kurosawa became an international phenomena and was honored at the Academy Awards, Cannes Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, British Academy Awards. In 1990, Kurosawa received a special Oscar for lifetime achievement.

Very few International directors have been as easily assimilated into the Hollywood Hall of Fame. In his own country, Kurosawa was regarded as the most "American" of Japanese film makers. He drew much influence from western works, Shakespeare's Macbeth was adapted into the dark and foreboding Throne of Blood (1957), and King Lear was translated into the epic and visually striking Ran (1985). Kurosawa drew from high literary influence but also the influence of Hollywood directors like John Ford. Kurosawa moved the Western East to create the Samurai film. The Seven Samurai (1954) was a sweeping tale of a small town that hires swordsmen to protect them from bandits roaming the country side. The film was remade by John Sturges as The Magnificent Seven (1960) with the all star cast including Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Eli Wallach.

Kurosawa's films have inspired a wide range of influence. Sergio Leone remade Yojimbo (1961) as a spaghetti-western in A Fistful of Dollars (1964), and the episodic story line of Rashomon was reworked in Pulp Fiction (1994) and The Usual Suspects (1995). Rashomon itself, was remade by Martin Ritt as The Outrage (1964) with Paul Newman and Edward G. Robinson.

This was an amazing legacy for the former painter who failed to get into art school. In 1941, the young Kurosawa answered a classified advertisement for an assistant director and learned his craft around the official state propaganda policy that closely monitored Japanese films. In 1948, Kurosawa found his ideal on-screen voice with Toshiro Mifune. The actor and director made 15 films together.

In his later films, Kurosawa captured a grand scale. Four years in the making, Dersu Uzala (1975) was a Japanese-Soviet co-production shot on location in Siberia. The saga of gold hunters fighting against the elements won both an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Picture (1975) as well as a Gold Metal at the Moscow Film Festival (1975). During the next decade, the director turned out only three films, but each one was more magnificent. Kagemusha (1980) won the Golden Palm at Cannes, as well as awards in Britain and Italy, Ran (1985) also gained multiple International accolades. In his most stylized effort, Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990), the director cast Martin Scorsese as Vincent Van Gogh in a vignette that brings the painter's swirling landscape to vibrant life.

Kurosawa's career remains one of the most interesting sagas of cinema. Upon receiving his lifetime achievement award, Kurosawa said "I donÕt regret anything. I found the perfect job.... all this time I've thought of nothing but movies." Turner Classic Movies features The Seven Samurai followed by it's American remake The Magnificent Seven and the director's first critical success Rashomon on November 20 starting at 8 p.m. eastern.