Seven Samurai

God, I love this film so much. It’s probably the most purely entertaining piece of cinema that has ever been created. There is just so much emotional variety: utterly thrilling, completely investing, genuinely hilarious and almost crushingly somber. The runtime blows over like a violent gust of wind, but doesn’t leave anything behind.  I came to one resounding conclusion on my umpteenth viewing of Seven Samurai: this is the greatest screenplay ever written. For a three and a half hour film it flies by like it’s 90 minutes. The fact that there are at least twelve characters with whom the viewer forms an intensely strong emotional rapport is really quite ridiculous. The way every single character here is introduced, developed and concluded is absolute perfection. If you even look at the way each one is established, it is wholly clear that from the second they appear on screen they are strongly and firmly based. Kurosawa’s presentation of conflict, between Kikuchiyo and the other samurai, individual farmers, the farmers and the samurai, even the harshness of the characters’ circumstances, and a great deal more, is what defines this film. Here, surrounding a common goal, is threaded the ambitions, the fears, the principles and the desires of every single party. And in how they clash and interact, and weave around one another, a story that is fundamentally simple is proven uniquely complex and compelling. Seven Samurai is the canonic blueprint for how you should write a film. And when it comes to the formal qualities of this film, there really is not much to say which has not already been said. The absolute vitality and overflowing dynamism of Seven Samurai brings me immense pleasure even to think about. Kurosawa is unflinchingly daring and ambitious in the cinematography, his use of sound - notably the score - and especially the editing, in such a way that accommodates the film perfectly. The framing overtly and boldly tells of entire dynamics in singular frames, and the camera movements have this kinetic quality to them that fills the frame with life. Kurosawa’s eye for framing, in how he layered shots, and especially in how he was able to frame groups of people is at this point legendary. And there’s always something going on in a shot, whether it be through use of the elements, movement of characters or sound. The film rarely halts, and when it does, it’s emphatic. I think it’s fair to say that Kurosawa mastered the traditional western style of filmmaking more than any one actual western director did. I think what I most love about Kurosawa is how accessible his films are. He has the genius of all the great cinematic auteurs, but never once could you ever accuse him of pretentiousness or of being overly intellectual. Anyone could watch a Kurosawa film and be completely absorbed. Everything about his writing and his style is just so charming and delightful, that any person of any age of any country could watch them with ease. Seven Samurai is the complete representation of that. It’s just so fun and so evidently made with passion - the kind of film that makes you want to make your own.