Review of Seven Samurai (1954) by Andrew D — 21 Jan 2012

When I hear the word masterpiece many things come to my mind. This film is one of the first to pop up. And I know the word masterpiece is used very frequently lately, I think that many can agree that this is a masterpiece, and not only Kurosawa's but from Japan's cinema. Kurosawa doesn't only created his greatest film here, but he made one of the most influential films of all times. Being remade many times in many different ways (most notably the western Magnificent Seven), and influencing alot of famous films. I think this film stands high in a list of the greatest films of all times.

A farming village, poor, during the 16th century. The village is being attacked by bandits every year after the harvest. The villagers are desperate and scared of them. Then, they come with a solution when they see a Samurai save a baby from a thief: hire the samurai, along with others, to protect the village. The Samurai at first declines, but later seeing the state of the village he decides to help. But only one isn't enough, so he goes to a town where Samurai frequent to get more help. There he meets a young boy who wishes to be a Samurai and his apprentice, and he is carried along the way. In the town they meet with other five Samurai (with one not fully a Samurai but comes along anyway), and set to protect the town from the evil bandits that are soon to attack.

Akira Kurosawa is more than a director, he is an artist. He is a genius in the filmmaking craft and he certainly knew what he was doing every time he picked up the camera. He created fantastic movies, but this has to be his greatest. And not only his best, or Japan's best, but probably the very best foreign film. The film is astonishing, breathtaking.

The story of the film is quite interesting. I already explained it so I won't do it again, but as you can see it is very interesting, and even more when put into cinema. The whole while you get the excitement of this film. It is intriguing and thrilling. The story is very entertaining as you can see. And the battles are very exciting too. Highly entertaining and keeps your eyes glued to the screen.

Also it has memorable and powerful characters, each having an important role to play, though I did feel that some were left aside completely ignored; but still, all the characters had importance in their moments. The seven samurai all are different from each other, from masterful veterans to happy jokers to kids just learning the craft of the samurai, they were all different and unique.

The direction of this film is flawless, but I wouldn't expect less coming from Kurosawa. He put all his effort on this, concentrating in every scene and making this film come to life. He worked on the details alot, as well as in large scale sequences. He did an amazing job.

One of the best and most influential films of all times, and my favorite foreign film too, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is a huge achievement in filmmaking. The film is widely regarded as a masterpiece, and I personally think this might be the best of Japan (though I still have alot to see). So this is a powerful film, with great story and fantasticly entertaining, using colorful characters and intense battles, all under the perfect direction of Kurosawa. A must see, even if you don't like reading subtitles and find length a problem, you just have to see it. 100%.