PODCAST - Connecting Akira Kurosawa's 'The Hidden Fortress' to 'Star Wars' w/ TV writer Mamoudou N'Diaye (S1/E3)

+ Deleted scenes, rapping Yodas, bonus "nubs" & more!

Yub Nub

Tim Barnes

, and

mamoudou n’diaye

Jun 14, 2024

∙ Paid

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Hot George Summer continues! TV writer Mamoudou N'Diaye (Space Force, Shape Island, How To Die Alone) joins Tim and Jim in a discussion of Akira Kurosawa’s 1958 classic, The Hidden Fortress and its impact on Lucas in the creation of Star Wars!

But BEFORE that we dive into parallels between Star Wars and hi-hop and more tidbits from the book George Lucas: A Life.

If you've never seen The Hidden Fortress, perhaps this fan-edit trailer in the style of The Force Awakens will convince you:

To read and watch additional material related to this episode, keep scrolling!

Episode Credits:

Hosts: Tim Barnes & Jim Fagan
Guest: Mamoudou N'Diaye
Theme Song: Matt Maher
Announcer: Carolina Ravassa
Podcast Art:Joel Jackson

IN THIS DISPATCH

More about Mamoudou N'Diaye
Discussion Highlights
- How ‘The Hidden Fortress’ influenced 3P0 and R2, Kurosawa/Lucas similarities, and Lucas’ tough casting calls!
What’s “Yubbing” Our “Nubs”
- Links to the exciting aspects of Star Wars that we referenced in Act I.
SPECIAL FEATURES (PAID SUBSCRIBERS)
- Bonus “Nubs” — Tim talks about the power of a Star Wars entrance!

Mamoudou N'Diaye: A Star Wars Story

Our guest this episode is Mamoudou N'Diaye — a Mauritanian/Malian-American comedian, tv/film writer, filmmaker, creative consultant, DJ, and former 7th-grade teacher who has written and appeared in the Comedy Central Original THEY FOLLOW, written for Refinery29's After After Party, Bandera’s Exploding Kittens, the second season of Netflix's Space Force, the ABC drama, Queens, Apple TV+’s Shape Island, and the upcoming Hulu comedy How To Die Alone.

Much like our guest Justin Marra from last week, Mamoudou’s first discovered Star Wars via VHS tapes of the original trilogy.

And he has a particular love foe the prequel DVD bonus features that have gems like this Revenge of The Sith deleted scene in which Anakin speaks droid!

Mamoudou also has an incredible newsletter of his own called

LOOSIES

! If you enjoy him in this episode, be sure to give it a follow:

Discussion Highlights:

R2D2 Dialogue Theories:

One of the biggest impacts The Hidden Fortress has on Star Wars is in its focus on two bickering peasants named Tahei and Matashichi who get caught up in the large scale conflict between the Akizuki Clan (good guys) and the Yamana Clan (bad guys). George Lucas is very open about the fact that these characters directly inspired the C-3P0 and R2D2 dynamic.

Yub Nub listeners who remember our vaulted episodes know how often we discuss the droids being the peasant class of the Star Wars franchise. They clearly have individual personalities and emotions yet are still considered to be tools more than people.

Perhaps this bias even ties into the level of disdain in Obi-Wan’s voice when he describes Darth Vader this way:

Was Kurosawa the George Lucas of his time?:

It’s something to consider given critical response to The Hidden Fortress in 1958, as Keith Phipps explains in his piece for The Dissolve:

Until Yojimbo surpassed Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress at the box office, the latter had the curious distinction of being his most financially successful film, but also one of his least critically respected. Reviewing 1958’s Hidden Fortress in a truncated 90-minute cut for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther referred to Kurosawa “stooping to Hollywoodisms.” In Japan, the film seemed to confirm the opinion of critics suspicious of Kurosawa’s unabashed embrace of Western filmmaking styles. On the one hand, Kurosawa’s skeptics weren’t wrong. The Hidden Fortress is, above all, a roaring piece of entertainment, a Western-like samurai adventure set against the chaos of 16th-century Japan. It’s also more than that—but even if it wasn’t, why complain? (FULL PIECE)

Hollywood was its own machine and he was taking influences from something that they probably were aware of but probably didn’t respect in the same way that George or Spielberg at the time too [were] respecting.

- Mamoudou N'Diaye (Yub Nub, 2024)

Obi-Wan Could’ve Been This Guy!:

That’s right… Toshira Mifune, who played General Rokurota Makabe The Hidden Fortress (and appears in many Kurosawa films) was offered the role of Obi-Wan AND Vader but turned it down because, as this 2015 Hollywood Reporter piece explains…

Toshiro Mifune, the legendary actor and star of numerous Akira Kurosawa films including Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Rashomon, turned down the roles of Obi Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, worried that Star Wars was going to look cheap, according to his daughter Mika. (FULL PIECE)

Honestly, it’s great to at least know that Lucas was interested in diverse casting from the start! Another fun trip down possibility lane is wondering how audiences would’ve reacted to the great Glynn Turman as Han Solo (because he did, in fact, audition!)

And it would’ve added a new dimension to this exchange for a 1977 crowd:

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What’s “Yubbing” Our “Nubs”

VIDEO/SONG: YODA
Jim is really loving this rap song from a mysterious being known as @NTFLXandDRILL that seems to capture the soul of Yoda.
ntflxanddrill
A post shared by @ntflxanddrill
REALIZATION: Hip-Hop & Star Wars are basically the same age!
It’s true. Upon scrolling past a Questlove post promoting a conversation about the 50 year history of hip-hop, Tim started processing the similarities between the two major world events.

In many ways, the fact that Star Wars and hip-hop are just around the same age, it highlights how George Lucas was kind of hip-hopping all of his childhood influences the same way that early rappers and DJs were remixing all of their, like, sonic influences.

- Tim Barnes (Yub Nub, 2024)