rating:
(out of
4 stars)Japan; 1954
Directed by Akira Kurosawa; produced by Sojiro Motoki; screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni
Starring Takashi Shimura, Toshirô Mifune, Yoshio Inaba, Seiji Miyaguchi, Minoru Chiaka, Daisuke Katô
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
'Shichinin no samurai' is one of the greatest movies ever made. It is called
the first modern action movie, the first movie where a team is on a mission,
an inspiration for the spaghetti western. Probably it is Akira Kurosawa's
best movie. Akira Kurosawa was one of the best filmmakers that ever lived so
that makes 'Shichinin No Samurai' one of the best movies ever made.
A poor village of farmers discovers it will be attacked by bandits after the
harvest. They hire seven samurai to protect their village. The samurai only
get three meals a day for doing this. The villagers fear not only the
bandits, they fear the samurai was well. One of them even tries to hide his
daughter is a girl. One of the samurai, still very young, falls in love with
exactly that girl.
One samurai is not a real one. He once was a farmer but has made himself a
samurai. They call him Kikuchiyo (Toshirô Mifune). He is brave, a good
fighter and pretty smart as well so he is allowed to join the group. Their
leader is Kambei Shimada (Takashi Shimura). We follow him through the
village with his map and Kurosawa makes the whole defense very clear to us.
All entrances are blocked accept one, one gap to lure the enemy.
When the battles finally arrive we have already seen a complete movie. The
battles look very good, especially when you consider the time they were
made. If all samurai survive is not for me to say. How it will end with the
young samurai and the girl you also have to see for yourself.
The movie is long with its 206 minutes, but it never gets boring. There is
comic relief as well, most of the time because Mifune and his character. His
performance is funny and very good. The other performances are also very
good. Shimura as the leader is a calm and wise man. The music is in the
right place, the costumes look perfect. With a great direction and a perfect
cinematography this is one of the best movies I have seen.