Seven Samurai 1954
This is another Akira Kurosawa movie that is supposed to be one of the greatest movies of all time. With such a reputation, it makes sense that it is disappointing. That isn’t to say this isn’t a good movie, but it plays out as a pretty conventional adventure movie where seven samurais protect a village of farmers from marauding thieves. With such a plot, it was easily remade into a cowboy movie in the US six years later called The Magnificient Seven.
There was a lot of garbage coming out in fifties as the Hollywood studios cranked out cheap movies for the masses, a market niche television would soon take over. And Japan at the time was cranking out cheap electronics and products, so most Japanese movies weren’t worth watching either (I read somewhere that half of the movies made in Japan at the time were samurai movies, just as in the US there were tons of westerns and gangster movies). In that context, this movie probably does stand above the competition. At over three hours long the movie can take time to develop a pretty large cast of characters including not just the seven samurai, but a junior samurai and several villagers as well. There is a love story, family issues, tarnished history, comic relief, etc. About halfway through the bandits show up and there is a substantial amount of action (though by no means constant) until the very end.
But nothing really impressed me here. The movie is black and white and very grainy. In fight scenes the camera is usually at some distance so it is hard to make out what happens. We can see a samurai slash out as a mounted bandit rides by, but we don’t really know why he falls off his horse. The forty bandits are knocked off a few at a time in a series of skirmishes so there is never a giant battle. By the time of the last battle there are only thirteen bandits left. The basic story of good vs. evil is fairly simple. We never really know much about the bad guys except to know they are truly bad. One quasi-samurai, Kikuchiyo, brings comedy and angst, but is horribly overplayed by Toshiro Mifune, who had a similarly manic role in Kurosawa’s earlier Rashomon. This movie is easily as good as Tarzan or any number of westerns made at about the same time (or for that matter, episodes of The Lone Ranger), but don’t expect to find anything new or even distinctly different other than the 16th century Japanese setting. Still, it is enjoyable and fun to watch. I’ll give it a B.
Written: 18 Jun 2006