Seven Samurai

Seven Samurai (1954) - Review
This was one of those very rare 3-hour-plus films that I didn't want to end. It's a most excellent film yet I find myself hardpressed to say why. The acting, except for two of the main characters (who were outstanding - more later), is fine but nothing special. The print wasn't the highest quality. Because it's subtitled (Japanese-language), the emotional impact is dampened somewhat. The story, while engaging and heartwarming, is nothing new.

But... I LOVED the film.

The story, by the film's director Akira Kurosawa, is a familiar one: Group of relatively helpless people enlist the aid of professionals to protect them from evil. In this case, it's a 16th century Japanese village of farmers who are about to be attacked by bandits after their rice. They convince a group of ronin samurai to help them in return for... well, nothing. The samurai leader is played by Takashi Shimura, who was sublime in the role. For some reason he reminded me of Lee Marvin, only wiser and less scary. Another member of the samurai group is played by the John Wayne of Japan, Toshiro Mifune. He's a member of the group, but one can't be sure that he is an actual samurai. He's kinda unhinged and provides most of the comic moments in the film. Based on his performance here, his legendary status seems well-deserved. What a face!

I'm not enough of a film expert to know how he did it, but Kurosawa made me love his characters. The samurai are old-fashioned heroes; any flaws they may have are mostly just alluded to. You can pick them out of any crowd by the way they carry themselves. There was one scene that captured their professionalism. One of them - a guy who reminded me of David Carradine in the TV show Kung Fu - goes alone to capture a gun from the bandits, returns with the gun, hands it to the leader and says "Killed two", sits down and falls asleep. Dude!

Highly recommended for just about anybody who has 3.5 hours to sit and watch a flick. It'll be worth it.


(out of 5)