Review of Seven Samurai (1954) by Tomislav A — 04 Jan 2012

Seven Samurai has been dissected by a whole bunch of important and influential people in the movie business and I really feel, after reading a lot of reviews, perspectives and thoughts on this one, that I have nothing meaningful to write. And yet I have a need to write something...Guess I'm being haunted by the feeling that I'll forget my own thoughts upon this movie, which has happened to me before with other great films.

I will write what particular aspects of this movie elevated it from being just another classic I watched on one afternoon. I must admit the hardest part in this movie was actually before it, having it and not being able to make myself go through a 3 hour japanese movie from the 50's. Once I passed that part, everything else was a blast.

As a film buff Akira Kurosawa alwas struck me as a someone whose movies I must experience on my own, without reading much about them. Seven Samurai is definitely his most outspoken work so I decided not to see it first. I've seen Ran and Rashomon before this, as a kind of introduction to his crowning work, and maybe I'm a bit influenced by other (expert) opinions, but I think I liked Seven Samurai the best too. All the build up to the final battle is fascinating and the seven characters all feel human, flawed and it really isn't one bit hard to cheer for them in the end. Every one of them has depth, some more than the others, or maybe I should say some more obviously than the others. Toshiro Mifune once again steals the show, although Takashi Shimura is almost as convincing. In a 3 hour epic, there is really a lot going on. You just can't say it is a good vs. evil movie cause it's simply much deeper. There is tromendous amount of subplots raising all kinds of questions in a viewer's head.

Battle scenes are very good and the fights feel convincing enough and by the point you reach massive fights in the movie, you'll be fired up to see those marauders dead and should be able to truly enjoy them.

There is much more to be written about here, but I will conclude this review by saying that the most satisfying aspect of the movie was the flow of the story and the much needed diversity of the characters. You know that feeling when you're watching a foreign movie and you just can't distinguish some characters? I had no such problems here because all were very much singled out with their needs, problems, traits and/or specialities.

Seven Samurai is an experience that left me amazed!