I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a sucker for YouTube countdown videos. One of the clear influences on this project and the movies I screen is the YouTube channel CineFix and their well considered, somewhat pretentious film lists. A name that constantly comes up in their countdowns is that of Japanese director and screenwriter Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa seems to be one of those “influencer of influencers”, whose disciples include Lucas, Coppola, Spielberg, Scorsese, and next generation directors like Guillermo del Toro, J.J. Abrams, and Spike Lee. With such an artistic pedigree, I knew I had to watch one of Kurosawa’s classics.
"Seven Samurai" is about a village of farmers who hire samurai (seven, if you were wondering) to defend their yield and their lives against a hoard of bandits. Though their plan is dubious, veteran samurai Kambei becomes sympathetic to the villager’s cause and assists with curating a team. Once at the village, Kambei and the other samurai lead the farmers through basic combat training and the construction of defenses. They learn of the bandits’ hideout and stage an offensive attack to ease their task, losing one samurai in the process. The final act is the fateful showdown that would leave the village mostly intact—but at a high cost.
Like other film’s that make my list, “Seven Samurai” is almost unremarkable in that the plot and characters feel oddly familiar. Unremarkable, until you realize that each of those familiar moments, characters, and tropes are copying this film! You don’t get “The Avengers” without this film laying the groundwork for how to assemble heroes in a first act. What about introducing our action hero in a conflict unrelated to our main plot, like “James Bond”? Check. The reluctant hero, like Han Solo? Check. Intercutting between establishing battle shots and close-up guerrilla-styled filming units, like every action film ever? Check. That’s not to say that this film invented these things, but it certainly helped codify them.
But outside of its influence, "Seven Samurai" was a tremendously enjoyable film. I was personally skeptical of a 3+ hour, black-and-white, foreign language film but found myself engrossed in the journey of each character and the progression of the story. Like "Avengers: Endgame", which I saw a week before this film, the story moves with such purpose and intrigue than you hardly sense the passage of time. I give this film the highest marks, not because it is my new favorite, but because there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. I enjoyed it through and through and look forward to more of Kurosawa’s work.