Seven Samurai (1954)
I’m not going to waste a whole lot of time discussing the complex (some would say convoluted) balloting system used to determine the winner of the “Scott’s Favorite Movie” Award, but I will say this: that was the worst use for a slingshot ever. That poor penguin.
I will, however, spend a whole lot of time discussing Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 masterpiece Seven Samurai. Released several years after the life-affirming Ikiru (called Kurosawa’s “greatest film” by Roger Ebert), Samurai didn’t just raise the bar for Japanese chanbara (swordplay) or jidaigeki (period)movies, it became a touchstone for Western filmmakers. I mean Western both in the Western Civilization way and in the “We’ll head them off at the pass” way. For the uninitiated, here’s Donald Richie’s bare bones explanation of the plot:
“The story is simple. A village is harassed by bandits. The villagers ask the aid of a masterless samurai who in turn gathers others, a group of seven – they themselves as outside society as the robbers they are asked to fight. They plan their defense and carry it out. A number die, and the villagers are grateful for the protection rendered. But it is spring planting season; they have things to do. “
This quick synopsis distills the 207 minute movie down to a mere droplet, but the story itself isn’t that complicated. It’s what’s bursting out from the frame of that simple story that makes this movie so exciting and fun. The characters are what make this movie come alive. When the villagers set out in search of samurai, we are treated to a Mos Eisley-like town full of prideful, pompous samurai. The search for samurai could have filled a full 3 hour movie in itself, but Kurosawa gives us all we need to know about each of the seven heroes in quick introductions. They win a duel here, cut some wood there; all give just a couple of lines of dialog that show us what great characters they are before they become part of the team. We immediately get a feel for the polar opposites that are represented by Takashi Shimura’s thoughtful, noble Kambei and the great Toshiro Mifune’s wild,unpredictable Kikuchiyo. These are the fan favorites (obviously), but each of the seven brings a talent, even if it’s just being a poor swordsman with a good sense of humor.
The way that the characters prepare for the final battle (and the way the villagers become lil’ warriors themselves) builds to a climax that is bittersweet. Of course the village is saved and the battle is won but we are cheated out of feeling victorious. There is no victory song, no dancing with Ewoks on the corpses of the bandits, there is just three samurai left mourning their dead comrades and farmers that have to get back to the business of farming.
Even 57 years later, Seven Samurai is still inspiring filmmakers. Samurai has been remade several times, most notably in 1960 with director John Sturges replacing medieval Japan with the American Wild West in The Magnificent Seven (starring Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen). There was something lost in the translation from samurai swords to six-shooters, but it’s still a good time at the movies. Beyond that, a recent anime took the story and expanded it to almost double the length, and the story of “getting the gang together for one big score/battle/mission” has become commonplace.
I just recently realized that this movie wasn’t in my (pretty dwindled) DVD collection, so I picked up the 3-disc Criterion Collection edition. Some of my favorite parts: Kyuzo’s duel with the unknown samurai in the field, Heihachi’s philosophy on fighting battles (“it’s impossible to kill ‘em all, so I usually run away.”), the old man in the mill whose advice is find “hungry samurai” (or better yet, “Why worry about your beard when you’re about to lose your head?!”), the grandma who avenges the death of her family as the town stands by and watches, Kikuchiyo’s ringing the alarm bell and scolding the town for its cowardice, and the epic final raid by the bandits on the village. In the end, Seven Samurai is the high water mark for epic action films and is one movie that I can watch repeatedly without ever getting tired of it. It is, to make a long story short, my favorite movie.
