Akira Kurosawa's legendary samurai film Yojimbo not only influenced the direction of cinema in general, but it also inspired a host of remakes and homages. Released in 1961 to immediate critical praise, the film incorporated elements of the western genre and infused it with a specifically Japanese twist. Besides being considered one of Kurosawa's best films, Yojimbo's legacy grew over the decades, and is considered one of TIME's best movies of all time, among other accolades. Because of its success and compelling story, Yojimbo inspired several direct remakes and a host of other films that took serious influence from the samurai classic.
Ironically, Yojimbo itself was heavily inspired by the works of author Dashiell Hammett, and some of the best noir films and books served as the backdrop for Kurosawa's vision. The 1942 adaptation of The Glass Key was cited by Kurosawa as an influence (via Paste), though its similarity to Hammett's other novel Red Harvest from 1929 was also noted by critics. Regardless of its origin, Yojimbo had an immediate impact on the films that followed it, and managed to influence movies that spanned a host of different genres including westerns, science fiction, and even sword and sorcery epics.
A Fistful Of Dollars (1964)
Like Yojimbo, Sergio Leone's spaghetti western A Fistful of Dollars from 1964 was a cultural milestone that inspired an entire genre. It told a similar story of a nameless loner who inserted himself into a power struggle within a small village, and like its predecessor, it had a genuinely pessimistic view of justice. A Fistful of Dollars saw Clint Eastwood in his best western role as the unnamed anti-hero, and the part was perfectly suited for Eastwood's brand of machismo. As for the story similarities between the two films, A Fistful of Dollars was similar enough to warrant a successful lawsuit from Yojimbo's production company, Toho (via SlashFilm).
Despite its problematic origins, A Fistful of Dollars was a sensation that helped revitalize the ailing western genre in the 1960s, and its hyper-stylized visual style was its true calling card. While most American westerns at the time had grown stale, A Fistful of Dollars was the shot in the arm that the genre needed, and it launched a trilogy of movies with Eastwood in the starring role. It established what the spaghetti western style truly was, and a legion of copycats and imitators sprung up in its wake, just like Yojimbo.
Django (1966)
The essential films of the spaghetti western genre very quickly took things to the extreme as the 1960s wore on, and 1966's Django was director Sergio Corbucci's own dark take on Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars as well. Set on the US/Mexican border in the wake of the Civil War, the film followed the titular character (Franco Nero) as he played both sides of a complicated conflict between the Ku Klux Klan and Mexican revolutionaries. Shot through with violent action and plenty of gore, Django was unlike most westerns that had come before whose scenes of violence were glossy and uncontroversial.
Django itself inspired many unofficial sequels that borrowed the titular character, though the long-awaited 1987 sequel Django Strikes Again officially saw the return of Nero in the lead role. Even if its legacy was more cultish than A Fistful of Dollars, Django was one of Quentin Tarantino's favorite films, and had an obvious impact on the over-the-top style that the filmmaker would adopt. Tarantino's own film Django Unchained from 2012 was his personal take on the classic character, with a few notable changes that made it uniquely his own.
The Warrior And The Sorceress (1984)
Prolific producer Roger Corman was known for the quick and cheap way that he created hundreds of films over the decades, but The Warrior and the Sorceress from 1984 was a truly unique installment in his filmography. Set on a distant desert planet, the film followed the mercenary warrior Kain as he offered his fighting services to two clashing warlords. Aside from the basic structure of the story, The Warrior and the Sorceress was as far removed from Yojimbo as any unofficial remake had been up to that point, and yet the plot worked for the sword and sorcery genre.
The self-contained fantasy movie's plot borrowed all the best elements from Yojimbo and didn't suffer from the underwritten nature of many of Corman's films. Even so, the overreliance on nudity detracted from the overall quality of the picture, and it still had the feeling of a cash-in and not a genuine work of art. The '80s were filled with sword and sorcery films, but few drew from such heady source material.
Last Man Standing (1996)
Unlike all the films that came before, 1996's Last Man Standing actually credited Yojimbo as a source, and was an official remake of the classic film. The movie concerned a hired gun (Bruce Willis) during the Prohibition era who found himself working for both sides of a bloody turf war between the Irish and Italian mafias in a small Texas border town. The forgotten 1990s thriller cleverly spun the original concepts of Yojimbo but didn't lose the charm that had made it successful in the first place. Willis' "John Smith" character continued the man-with-no-name tradition much in the same way that Eastwood's did in A Fistful of Dollars.
The choice to set the film during the Orohibition era was inspired by Red Harvest, the Dashiell Hammett novel that partly inspired Yojimbo. Director Walter Hill established his own visual language for the story, and resisted the urge to directly lift from the film that was being remade. Even if the film itself was received rather coolly by critics and audiences alike, it showed that a remake of Yojimbo didn't have to be a carbon copy, and it didn't have to be a western either.
The Star Wars Franchise Paid Homage To Yojimbo
Star Wars quite frequently, and Yojimbo helped to forge the look of many of the most popular aspects of the franchise. Among other inspirations, the samurais of Kurosawa eventually lead to George Lucas' Jedi, and moments from Yojimbo were even directly referenced in Star Wars from 1977. Mirroring a similar scene in Yojimbo in which Sanjuro used his sword to chop off the arm of a bragging criminal, Obi-Wan Kenobi used his lightsaber to disarm a character in the Mos Eisley cantina scene. Though Kurosawa's films like The Hidden Fortress from 1958 had a bigger impact, Yojimbo was important nevertheless.
Other Projects Based On Yojimbo
Besides the slew of unofficial sequels and spinoffs based on Yojimbo, there were also non-film projects like the early-'00s anime series Kaze no Yojimbo that updated the tale into a modern-day gangster story. Similarly, the 1996 sci-fi action film Omega Doom distorted Kurosawa's original vision into a post-apocalyptic dystopia, and 1999's Inferno gave it a Mad Max-style spin. The 1976 thriller The Last Round continued Italian cinema's fascination with the classic samurai film when it set its version in the mafia-run Northern provinces of the country, but deviated quite a bit from the original story outside of the classic warring factions framework.
Other Movies Based On The Glass Key And Red Harvest
Yojimbo had a massive influence on cinema, but so too did the works that actually inspired the film in the first place. The Hammett novel Red Harvest wasn't the direct inspiration for Blood Simple from 1984, but it did draw its title from the book. Hammett expostulated on the idea that someone became simpler when they were exposed to constant violence, thus the term "blood simple" grew to become the movie's title. The Coen brothers were once again inspired by Hammett when they made 1990's Miller's Crossing, though the movie wasn't a direct adaptation of The Glass Key.
Among many other inspirations, the characters of Ted and Leo were lifted directly from The Glass Key, and even Red Harvest's Prohibition-era setting was adopted for the movie. Miller's Crossing bore no resemblance to Yojimbo, and yet they both sprung from the same well of Dashiell Hammett's works. The Coen brothers' best films would go on to inspire future generations of filmmakers and director Rian Johnson even cited Miller's Crossing as an inspiration for his 2005 film Brick (via AV Club). It was through the Coens that Johnson discovered the works of Dashiell Hammett, and his hard-boiled neo-noir eventually was spawned from those classic works.
