George Lucas has one of those faces I just want to punch. (His hair bugs me, too.) Would I feel the same way if he weren't the father of the ever-metastasizing Star Wars franchise, with its rickety mythology, shallow philosophy and, from what I hear, ever-diminishing creative returns? I tamp down this irrational hostility by remembering the two good things that came out of Star Wars: Harrison Ford, and Lucas' repeated acknowledgement that his film was inspired by Akira Kurosawa's samurai saga, The Hidden Fortress (1958). Of course, many directors have "borrowed" from the Japanese master: The Seven Samurai was...