Seven Samurai

Akira Kurosawa's classic art house film tells the story of poor villagers under attack by marauding bandits and the seven unemployed samurai or ronin ,including two of Kurosawa’s favourite actors, Toshiro Mifune and Takeshi Shimura, who help them defend themselves.

With its histrionic acting style, elaborate staging and long-held shots The Seven Samurai often looks like a silent film (even to the use of wipes) but this is more to do with the fact that Kurosawa is orienting his film to classical Japanese theatrical traditions rather than Hollywood verisimilitude, despite the fact that he was a devotee of John Ford's Westerns. something which is evident here.. The result is a benchmark ‘Eastern’ Western which was in turn was remade as a ‘Western’ Western in 1960 as The Magnificent Seven.

Although most will find it overlong (it was cut to 141 mins for commercial release in the West) especially its comedic aspect most of which stems from Mifune's excessive mugging, it demonstrates Kurosawa’s masterful film-making skills particularly with respect to the action sequences which he would develop further in Throne of Blood (1957) and Ran (1985) and his skill in portraying intimate human drama within the fabric of large scale events.

 

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