George Lucas took the structural DNA of The Hidden Fortress — an epic war told from the perspective of two bickering underlings — and made C-3PO and R2-D2 its direct descendants. Lucas acknowledged this in a 2001 Criterion Collection interview. He didn't hide the influence; he canonized it. Kurosawa showed Lucas that great stories don't need great heroes, they need great storytelling. The Hidden Fortress is available on Criterion Channel.
The story was told from the point of view of the two lowest characters in The Hidden Fortress... I decided that would be a nice way to tell the Star Wars story, and so the entire story of Star Wars is told from the point of view of the two droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO.
— George Lucas · Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray extras (cited by MUBI Notebook)
The one thing that I was really taken with in The Hidden Fortress was that the story was told from the point of view of the two lowest characters... I decided that would be a nice way to tell the Star Wars story, so the entire story of Star Wars is told from the point of view of the two droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO.
— George Lucas · Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray extras (cited by MUBI Notebook)
The one thing that I was really taken with in The Hidden Fortress was that the story was told from the point of view of the two lowest characters... I decided that would be a nice way to tell the Star Wars story, and so the entire story of Star Wars is told from the point of view of the two droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO.
— George Lucas · Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray extras (cited by MUBI Notebook)
Films That Influenced Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
