From west to east – or from east to west depending on your location – we have covered cowboys, now it is high time to cover the samurai. And what better movie than Seven Samurai? It is an immortal classic from the Japanese cinematographic industry, directed by Akira Kurosawa in 1954 and starring Toshiro Mifune (an actor I particularly adore – consider Rashomon). Coincidentally, Seven Samurai just reached its 70-year anniversary, but it is not the only movie with a seven in the tile to have been made in that same year; Seven Brides for Seven Brothers also came out in 1954. Those are a lot ’a sevens; this has absolutely no relevance with the rest, but it is still a piece of information I find curious.
Seven Samurai is a movie cantered around the story of seven people (not all of them are technically samurai since not all of them were born into nobility) decide to take up a contract to protect a small village of local farmers from outlaws. Given the amount of bandits, the samurai will also train various villagers to defend themselves; although victorious in the end, considering the loses, the finale has a bittersweet quality to it. It still deserve its title considering the honour bestowed on the protagonists for facing fearlessly foes that surpass them in numbers – as such, according to a romanticized chivalrous or bushido code, they are worthy of the rank of samurai.
Kurosawa, with this masterpiece, popularised a trope that would be later used in many other pieces of fiction, from movies to comic books. In 1960, John Sturges for instance directed The Magnificent Seven, a western with an all-star ensemble of actors that was a direct homage to Seven Samurai. This trope of ‘the dream team’ has been used extensively since then, with variations of course (such as the one where the protagonists are a ragged team of misfits). Consider for instance various Marvel and DC movies, as well as the Fast and Furious franchise, Ocean’s Eleven (and subsequent numbers) and so on. You can think of a wide array of examples that use – some effectively and some less so – this trope.
One of the only problems I personally have with this classic is the pacing; clocking at almost three hours and a half, it is true that Kurosawa builds up the story and sets the stakes masterfully, but judging it by more modern standards, it may seem a bit slow-going.
I would give this movie a 7 out of 10 ‘the seventh sun (yes sun) of the seventh samurai’.