Review of Seven Samurai (1954) by Aaron A — 04 Dec 2010

This is the nature of war. By protecting others, you save yourselves.

A small village of farmers grows tired of being attacked by bandits, and hires Seven Samurai to fight for them.

Seven Samurai is one of Akira Kurosawa's rare works that achieved a certain level of comedic value as well as artistic merits. You can almost see the legendary director give out a chuckle as he wrote scenes of a trashy pseudo-samurai make a fool of himself. The director/writer/editor also found innovative script ideas in the process though, the idea of bringing together multiple protagonists to achieve one goal is still highly utilized today, some critics (most notably Roger Ebert) point to this film as the one in which first used the idea of introducing a hero through a completely unrelated plot.

Some people say its long, and it is, but due to plenty of comic relief and impressive set pieces, it never drags, though make sure you have 3 and a half hours to invest in the film before you watch it, as this film wasn't designed to be watched every couple of months.