Day 2: Seven Samurai (1954)

At almost three and a half hours, Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” is a tough film to view in a single day, but, boy is it ever worth it. With a lively pace and an ensemble of excellent characters, Kurosawa’s magnum opus is a wonder to behold, not to mention the gold standard for several film archetypes.

Set in 1500′s Japan, a poor farming village finds their livelihood in jeopardy when a group of bandits plan to ransack their homes and crops at the end of the harvest. After already suffering once at the bandit’s hands, the villagers decide that they must fight back by sending a group of men to contract a Samurai to defend them. By the end of their quest, the group brings back not one, but seven rouge Samurai, each honored to protect the village while receiving very little in return.

Heading up the group is Kambei, an older and wiser Samurai who, with the help of master archer Gorobei, leads the other members, Katsushirō, Heihachi, Shichirōji, Kyūzō, and Kikuchiyo, in teaching the villagers how to defend themselves for the upcoming attack. But, when the bandits arrive now touting rifles, it will take more than just swords for the Samurai to come out victorious.

At the time of its creation, “Seven Samurai” was the largest undertaking by a Japanese director ever. With a shooting schedule of 148 days, four times that of its original budget, Kurosawa had the Toho Production Company furious. Several times the whole production was shut down, but, knowing that the studio had too much invested to quit, Kurosawa would go fishing until they’d ask him to start up once again. Though 1954 would be one of Toho’s biggest years, financially speaking, they almost went bankrupt while funding both “Samurai” and a little monster movie called, “Godzilla.”

In cinema history, “Seven Samurai’s” legacy stems from it being the first to preform many plot devices, now commonly found in film. For one, the idea of a team being put together for a single mission is first seen through Kambei’s Samurai recruitment, but has since appeared in such works as “The Sting,” “The Dirty Dozen,” “Ocean’s Eleven,” and “The Magnificent Seven,” itself a western adventure remake of “Seven Samurai”.

“Seven Samurai” also marks one of the first times in cinema where we are introduced to a main character as he works to complete a plot line that has no relation to the main story. Author Blake Snyder would call this, “Saving the Cat,” a moment where our film’s hero proves to all that he is good before getting into the thick of the plot. In this film’s case, the villagers, seeking out a Samurai, first encounter Kambei as he disguises himself as a monk to rescue a kidnapped child. Through this action, the villagers (and the audience) grow to admire the Samurai and accept him as the hero.

To some, Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” would be considered the first “action movie” and I would agree, but don’t let that shortchange the film. It is a beautiful period epic with as many introspective moments as fighting sequences, not to mention lovers separated by responsibility, the formation of an odd friendships, and even physical humor. Now you may go into “Seven Samurai” for the action, but you will leave with a sense of wonder because of everything else.

To learn more about “Seven Samurai” check out Criterion’s page here.

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