Movie Minx

Starring: Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa

Plot: A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.

But is it any good?

So I have finally seen Seven Samurai, which has been waiting patiently for me near the top of the 100 list since I started this project. It is hailed as the granddaddy of the Western genre and has inspired countless other filmmakers around the world with its flawless epic-ness. “If you haven’t seen this movie, you can’t call youself a fan of films,” bleats one reviewer on imdb.com. Actually, I’ve never seen so many gushing love-letters to a movie. “Each and every shot is exquisitly composed..” etc.

Well, respect. The movie certainly deserves all its accolades. Set in 16th-century Japan, it opens with some timid farmers who know their village is shortly to be plundered by bandits so they recruit some unemployed samurai warriors to help them defend it, promising only three meals a day in return. The plot follows the recruitment of the samurai (clearly the 16th-century equivalent of rockstars, or at least some of them), their arrival in the village, their preparation for the bandit attack and then the battle(s).

The samurai themselves range in character from young and silly to wise Obi-Wan/Morgan Freeman-types and each portrait is carefully painted. The farmers are not one-dimensional either: timid, cowardly, a little crooked and opportunistic. There is certainly time to give them depth at 3.5 hours; admittedly there are no superfluous scenes but the duration was still a struggle for me (a quick glance at the imdb rating demographic shows that females give this film about 7.3).

But watching this I was able to recognise the inspiration for films that were to come - it was apparently the first to have slo-mo action scenes - and it was certainly a great tale that seemed very vivid as I watched it. I wouldn’t put it in my own top 10, though. And interestingly, 1950s Japan obviously had no hesitation in displaying male buttocks on film in close-up, resulting at times in some awkward Britney Spears-no-knickers type moments!

IMDb’s rating: 8.8/10
My rating: 8/10

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