Kurosawa's Masterpiece: Seven Samurai

Akira Kurosawa’s 1956 masterpiece, Seven Samurai, is rightfully included on any best-picture list or ranking and has from its incarnation been recognized as one of the greatest films of all time. The story is at once extremely remote and unfamiliar to virtually all (first-time) viewers yet also universal and comprehensible across all cultural divides - which is why SS has been so successfully adapted in the famous American Wester The Magnificent Seven. Story in brief: in the late 1500s in rural Japan a small village of rice/barley farmers fear that once their harvest is in they will be overrun by a marauding team of bandits on horseback. Unable to counter such powerful armed assault, the village sends a team of elders to the nearest “city” (more an outpost or trading post) with the goal of hiring 7 Samurai to defend the village from attack; the 7 men recruited each has his own personality and role within the narrative, which is rich with elements (the youngest of the Samurai falls in love w/ a village girl, with many consequences, for example). To me the coolest of the Samurai has always been the world-expert swordsman who is focused on perfecting his art and a bit reluctant to take on this paramilitary assignment. The most famous is played by the great Toshiro Mifune, is miscreant who creates comic havoc but is always true to his commitments. There are so many great scenes, but to cite just a few: the test that head samurai (Takashi Shimura, another great actor) devices to test each samurai before the recruitment interview; Mifune following the other six on their way to the village, hoping to win them over; Mifune sounding the alarm when the samurai enter the village; the initial attack scenes, which show the brutality of medieval warfare ass well as any other film except maybe Chimes at Midnight; the village girl’s remorse when her father beats her after she’s had sex with the youngest samurai; and the closing moments, of course, with the rice harvest under way and the winds rustle the pennants over the graves of the fallen soldiers. Three + hours - but so engrossing and easy to watch.