Review of Seven Samurai (1954) by Cameron J — 02 Jul 2012

I know that samurai is the plural of, well, samurai, but I can't help but feel a little bit thrown off by that title, as if this is an epic about some kind of seven-year-old samurai being employed by a farmer to fend off bandits. I can probably think of a couple of freaks-I mean, people who are waiting for me to secure the fact that I'm kidding, considering that a premise like that sounds about as crazy as some Japanese samurai film. Hey y'all, you need to get out of the '70s and rewind about two decades, because this is back when it was serious, or at least about as serious as it could be as a '50s Japanese samurai film. "Seriously" though, this is that good ol' fashion Akira Kurosawa type stuff, so you know that this is where things get real, so much so that they based a western on this film (I know a western based on an Akira Kurosawa film; who could have seen that coming?), and there's nothing silly about... "The Magnificent Seven". ...Okay, take my word for it, this is film isn't afraid to get down to the nitty and gritty, as you would expect from the late, great Mr. Kurosawa. Note that I said, "you", because I don't quite know what to expect, seeing as how I haven't seen a too many of Kurosawa's films, yet after this film, maybe I should brush up on my Kurosawa history a bit more, because I'm liking this. However, it's not quite the masterpiece that everyone and their grandmother (Especially the grandmother's, seeing as how this film owes a lot of its acclaim to being so doggone old), and for a few reasons.

With the film running startlingly close to three-and-a-half hours and having the praise of being sweeping at its back, I'd imagine that you're expecting quite the dynamic epic, but how would you feel if I told you that the film is pretty much just about seven samurai hired to fight off bandits who have been harassing farmers, and that its western remake, which is reasonably faithful to the original story, is nearly 100 minutes shorter than its source material and still overlong? Yeah, I'd imagine some of that excitement has died down a bit, but rest easy, because, in actuality, there's enough livliness in the story and sweep in the scope for the film to warrant a sprawling runtime, though, well, quite decidedly, not quite a three-hour-and-twenty-seven-minute-long runtime. Sure enough, repetition sets it and just plain expendable material soon follows, and it all brings the slowness more to the forefront. Granted, this film isn't all that slow, or at least not as slow as I had feared, yet it will limp around on occasions, and the aforementioned excess material intensifies that steam loss, while the occasional convention distances you further. The story is a generally unique one for its time and genre, yet the film does collapse into the occasional trope that was already familiar by 1954, thus leaving you to go a tad thrown off, an event that's most definately not good when you've a film suffering from such aforementioned story structure flaws. The film isn't quite as killer as the critics promised, and that's a shame, as there are so many aspects that are genuinely excellent about this film. However, this film is just that, riddled with excellent aspects that may not leave this film to transcend past its flaws to a full-on stellar state, but are nevertheless excellent enough to make this film still well worth the watch.

Speaking of something about this film not quite living up to critics' promise, there's only so much in the way of action in this film, yet they are correct when they say that what action sequences there are were remarkable for their time and remain razor-sharp to this day, with nifty staging and choreography really holding your attention, while Akira Kurosawa's manipulation of atmosphere summons tension and substance during the action. Outside of that, Kurosawa still keeps things going, for although the level of intrigue can only take so much redundance before it lapses, more often than not, Kurosawa gets a lot of effectiveness out of the story, which is already engaging to begin with, because, well, it's just such a good story. There's only so much sweep in the story, but when there is grandness in scope, you get a real sense of adventure, yet more often than not, the story is quite intimate with its characters, drawing a lot of humanity and resonance in an engrossing and memorable fashion made all the stronger by, as I said, Kurosawa's compelling atmosphere manipulation, as well as an unexpectedly large slew of fine performances. I was going in expecting some good performances and some weak performances and recieved only the former, as well as a couple of performances that were not simply good, but upstanding. Most everyone is at the very least charismatic, and memorably so, yet many performances - primary, secondary and, on occasions, even tertiary - boast a kind of human intensity of emotion and distinctive atmosphere that gives you a real and deep feel for the story, consequences and overall weight of the film. Sure, maybe we spend a bit too much time focusing on supporting characters, and in a situation like that, you tend to want to at least leave the scene having gotten enough of an understanding of the depth within our supplementary characters, and this is one of those handful of occasions where you do, thanks to the writing and acting. There's quite a bit to criticise about this film, yet still much to praise, and while that's not enough for it to knock me out like it did the other critics, it's still enough for me and any self-respecting respecter of a good story to feel generally satisfied.

In conclusion, the film is a lengthy one, and not always smoothly so, going plagued by quite a few instances of repetition and trimmable fat around the story edges, leaving the final product to lose a bit of steam here and there, with some slowness and the occasional convention preventing the steam from raging back too much, making for a film that doesn't live up to all of its promises, yet what promises it does deliver on go executed well enough to make the film engrossing, with the occasional nifty action sequence breaking up an engrossing, well-directed and generally unique story, which is especially brought to life by an unexpectedly large amount of acting talent that helps in cutting into the depth of this compelling tale and in making "Seven Samurai" and ultimately worthwhile and thoroughly enjoyable epic, even if it's not quite what the critics promised.

3/5 - Good.