Not Exactly Godzilla

[Big Kid]

It's known that Seven Samurai inspired The Magnificent Seven and The Hidden Fortress Star Wars.  But how were Americans exposed to undubbed international movies before home videos or channels likely to play foreign films?

[LuckyDan]

26 minutes ago, Big Kid said:

It's known that Seven Samurai inspired The Magnificent Seven and The Hidden Fortress Star Wars.  But how were Americans exposed to undubbed international movies before home videos or channels likely to play foreign films?

Subtitles. And art houses. 

 

[txfilmfan]

8 hours ago, LuckyDan said:

Subtitles. And art houses. 

 

Also college/university film clubs.

[JamesJazGuitar]

1 hour ago, txfilmfan said:

Also college/university film clubs.

I assume the creator of this thread when mentions "Americans" related to being inspired,   that the refences was to potential contributor to the US film industry;  I.e.  future screen writers,  directors,  producers,,,,,   

I assume most of these specific Americans received most of their exposure from college/university film school and their associated clubs.   

Of course maybe they were just more like me;   E.g. my exposure to Japanese films was due to my mom being Japanese,  and Italian films due to my wife being Italian.     One problem was often the VHS tapes sent to us from these countries from relatives didn't have subtitles!    

 

 

[LuckyDan]

There were international markets and domestic distributors of foreign films before Godzilla. I would guess large urban markets with immigrant population had houses for foreign language films. I read Seven Samurai was edited for brevity in Japan for its American release.  

[LiamCasey]

Many American cities have or had international film festivals.