A Favorite: Seven Samurai

Akira Kurosawa's 1954 masterpiece "Seven Samurai" is my 21st favorite movie of all-time, my 2nd favorite film of the director, and my 9th favorite film of the 50s. Typically I review "Netflix Instant" movies and occasionally "Theatrical Releases." Well, this is neither. This is the first movie I'm going to review that's just a plain old review of one of my favorites. I recommend you get your hands on it in anyway possible. Even if you've already seen it, this film is worth sitting down for a very quick 3.5hrs again and again. If you haven't seen it, there are some spoilers ahead. The story is divided into four parts: the setup, complications and resolution, development, and, finally, the climax. First we see a small village of farmers who discover bandits will descend on them soon after the harvest. Some of the villagers go to the patriarch of the village, Granddad. His idea is to go into a nearby town and bring back hungry samurai-for-hire to help protect them.

A group of farmers goes to the town and finds that hiring samurai is much, much harder than expected. The samurai they first come across are either just plain mean or weaklings. However, soon they begin to find willing and very able samurai scattered among the town. We're introduced to each of them in every way from comical to bad ass. The first shaves his head to trick a thief into thinking he's a monk in order to bravely save a child from his clutches. The second is just a young samurai who looks up to the first. He seems like a rich kid (though not at all a spoiled brat) who ran away to look for a master. The third and fourth are some rather plump samurai who are nevertheless trustworthy allies as well as perfectly able (the test the first samurai gives one of them is quite funny). The fifth (my favorite) is seen reluctantly destroying a fool in a sword battle, and the sixth is more of a comedian than a samurai (they find him chopping firewood with great concentration and decide he's good enough). And, of course, the seventh is played by the great Toshiro Mifune. He's the outsider of the group. It's likely he's never been in a real fight, but has more gall than all of them.

In the development phase of the movie, the six samurai, well, and Toshiro Mifune's character, return to the village and prepare for the bandit's attack. During this part we learn more about all of the samurai and some key villagers. This is also the time where secondary aspects of the situation are fleshed out. Suspense is built as the final part is delayed. Once we know everything we need to know about the stakes and about how well-prepared the village is for bandit onslaught, the final part, the climax, begins. Now we just watch as their plans work.

Perhaps surprisingly, this was Akira Kurosawa's first samurai film. He had originally wanted to make a film about a day in the life of a samurai, but he later discovered a story about samurai defending a village. It was originally going to be "Six Samurai." Then during the writing of the script Kurosawa and the other writers decided "six sober samurai were a bore---they needed a character that was more off the wall." Enter Toshiro Mifune's character, the seventh samurai. Through improvisation, Toshiro Mifune, a master actor, does indeed create an off the wall character. Sometimes during the fight scenes it looks as if he learned to fight by watching monkeys.

Earlier I said that this was a "very quick 3.5hrs." The fight and battle sequences, scattered throughout, are visceral and the character development and character complexity is so interesting that those hours of your life will fly by. What's perhaps most interesting in the film is the continual questioning of what's/who's good and what's/who's bad. In one scene, Toshiro Mifune's character angrily argues that the samurai have been abusing and exploiting the peasants for centuries. Are they bad or good? Are the bandits bad or good? Are the villagers bad or good? Are particular individuals bad or good? The film plays around with notions of good and evil making the viewer question along with it. This makes for an exciting movie even without all the action. In the end it's obvious that the samurai were a lesser evil than the bandits, that is, at least for this time slice of the village. After they're job is finished, they are no longer needed nor wanted by the villagers.