Seven Samurai

It's been a goal of mine for this year to watch all of Kurosawa's films. Seven Samurai is not on that list because I watched it 4-5 years ago. It's been a favorite of mine ever since, but since I've only ever watched it once I wanted to go back and reinforce my thoughts about it. Seven Samurai is an absolute masterpiece. Unless you've seen it, you might not realize the impact it has had on the film industry as a whole. Virtually every MCU film, Star Wars, Justice League, The Dollars Trilogy, The Magnificent Seven, Ocean's Eleven, The Fast and the Furious, Saving Private Ryan, Django Unchained, countless anime and other animated films, you name it this film has inspired it. It's reach is global and it's not difficult to understand why. The theme of not giving up and standing up for what you believe in transcends genres. Looking past class boundaries, discovering who you are, questioning the morality of your decisions. Kurosawa didn't discover these but he executed them in such a way that makes this film iconic. Not every film before or after it can say that. This is a 3.5 hour long film. Most people aren't willing to do anything for that long let alone watch an old movie full of death and questionable morals. When I originally watched this I planned on splitting it into two halves. With an intermission just under the 2 hour mark you can easily do that. That said, I ended up watching the entire film from start to finish then and now. I'd even recommend that you sit through the intermission. It gives you time to collect your thoughts an absorb the last couple of hours. Seven Samurai flies by. It's captivating throughout the entire runtime and that's thanks to the masterful work by Akira Kurosawa. This might be the only film that I've ever seen where every shot feels necessary. Kurosawa sets up each shot perfectly. No space is wasted on screen and as many have said "each shot could be a painting". Even though it lacks color, it's absolutely gorgeous, the landscapes, fire, close ups, framing, it's all perfect. It's not wonder that Seven Samurai is religiously studied by film students all over the world. Each second of the film is spent developing the plot or the characters of which there are many. Besides the samurai themselves you have the villagers and the bandits. Kurosawa easily could have made a 2 hour film with bare minimum character development, budget, and time. cough Rebel Moon cough. What I didn't expect when I first watched this was just how heartfelt and funny it was going to be. There are many scenes that are laugh out loud funny and bring some levity. Due to most of the scenes covering very dark subject matter the humor is welcome. With it sprinkled throughout it raises your spirits as well as the villagers' who are losing hope. There's even romance between two of the younger characters that is believable and wholesome. Toshiro Mifune, as always, eats up the screen. He's wild and crazy, but lovable and hilarious. He oozes swagger, walking around with a sword twice the size of the others carrying it over his shoulder. His development is some of the best I've ever seen. I've always associated Takashi Shimura with his role in this film, but this is not the type of performance he usually has. He's excellent as a wise and commanding figure and is arguably the star of the show. The other samurai are great. Similar to an Ocean's film, they all have their own personalities, quirks, and motivations that make them stand out. Some performances that this film usually gets criticized for are the villagers. Many complain that they are annoying - they cry and yell for a majority of their screen time. I can see why they would think that, but that's kind of the point. Even the characters are annoyed with them. Once you realize what they've had to endure and they start to develop as characters you appreciate the major contrast from the samurai. The action scenes are brutal for the time and are still just as engaging as any modern action film. Because Kurosawa chose to use multiple cameras, which was pretty rare at the time, you can easily follow the faster moving scenes. These scenes have immediately recognizable qualities. After a glance you can see the inspiration for Star Wars lightsaber battles and duels in pretty much any western movie. I could talk about Seven Samurai for hours. I envy anyone who gets to watch this for the first time. Lists: *2024 Goals* *Kurosawa Ranked* *Favorite Films*