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While many American directors drew inspiration from Kurosawa’s vision of cinematic poetry as well as his unique choreography of action, the Japanese director was himself influenced by American cinema when he was starting out in the industry. On multiple occasions, Kurosawa cited John Ford as a source of constant amazement, alongside some of Ford’s compatriots.

It was Ford who helped Kurosawa properly understand the concept of the cinematic image, learning from the way in which the Stagecoach director composed his signature panoramas. Unfortunately, Kurosawa did not hold the same opinion when it came to Ford’s successors who tried to fit into a different mould as times changed along with the sensibilities of modern audiences.

During a conversation from the 1990s with Maani Petgar that was published on Cinephilia & Beyond, Kurosawa revealed the heavy disappointment he felt when he watched contemporary American movies that failed to do anything meaningful with the genre frameworks of action and sci-fi.

Kurosawa explained: “Regarding American cinema, I could say that much better films were made in the past. Today’s American cinema provides the wrong service to the audience. Violence and car crashes are often seen. What pleasure is there in watching such scenes? Old American films expressed human problems quite well, but these days, the American cinema has problems.”

Drawing a comparison with Hollywood classics that had a different approach, he added: “There is no doubt that a film like Jurassic Park is interesting, but there used to be more impressive films in the past. In contrast, films like those of [Abbas] Kiarostami touch the heart and are very beautiful. These new sci-fi, action films, are good but they are not cinema.”