Review of Seven Samurai (1954) by G S — 28 Nov 2011

Absolutely breathtaking film by Kurosawa. This is when he was at the height of his powers, making his longest film ever. But after watching this film I was hardly tired, but exhilirated. This picture is a testament to Kurosawa's brilliance.

It has it all. His direction is complimented by the calming influence of Takashi Shimura, the raw intensity of Toshiro Mifune, the desperation of the farmers, along with humour, pathos, anger, and epic battle scenes.

It is a very violent and dark film at times but Kurosawa never uses bloodshed to please his audience. Every second is simply captivating because of just the sheer magnificience of the screenplay, the wonderful direction, delightful acting, and the awe inspiring seven samurai.

The slow motion sequences work very well in setting the mood and drawing attention. The camraderie of the entire village and the samurai on screen illustrated a great chemistry between actors. Although not the sole protagonist or the focus of the film, Toshiro Mifune's performance as a feisty and aggressive samurai is a huge highlight.

A lot of memorable scenes, which are very very funny involve him bullying the villager Yohei. Tatsuya Nakadai, who worked with Kurosawa on his later film, appeared in this film for about 5 seconds as a samurai in the town.

Nakadai said that Kurosawa kept his principle actors and many extras waiting that day when he shot the scene working on getting Nakadai to walk like a samurai. In Nakadai's own words "we started at 9 a.

M. and he gave me the thumbs up at 3 p.m." That goes to show how intense Kurosawa was and how much he cared about this simply flawless film.