SEVEN SAMURAI.
Starring - Toshiro Mifune - Takashi Shimura - Daisuke Kato - Isao Kimura.
Director  - Akira Kurosawa.
1954.


  I always hear people referring to “Seven Samurai” as a “popcorn action flick” on discussion forums – they are probably the same bunch of pretentious suckers who have nothing better to do with their lives than posting up their top 10 art house movie lists every night so they can feel more important – you know, as if we really give a damn whether a bunch of dorks prefer Tarkovsky to Michelangelo or not. I think we all know where they are getting. It’s now got to a stage where it is cheap to say you like anything made after the sixties. Even when it comes to a genre like action, you need to pick something in black and white, and since no one knows many action flicks made before 1960 and everyone is worried people will find out they love “Commando,” they come up with “Seven Samurai.” Hey, it’s got like 30 minutes of action in its three-and-a-half-hour runtime, what do you want?
“Trust me, the best action movie ever made is “Seven Samurai.””
Sounds savvy, doesn’t it?
For Christ’s sake, “Seven Samurai” is DRAMA with a major action set piece in the finale. That’s it. This film is regarded as a classic not because of the action (at least not primarily), but the narrative, which provides the blueprint for countless movies to follow – or is it rip-off? I heard that this is actually the first movie to deploy techniques that have since become clichés in modern cinema, like featuring a team of characters working towards a common goal, and to introduce them with scenes totally unrelated to the rest of the plot. Actually, according to some critics, we would all be living in caves chewing on raw meat had it not been this movie. Really important stuff.
The plot is essentially about a bunch of samurai (actually there are seven) who help some poor peasants fight off four dozen bandits for free. Actually it’s not for free, they charge rice – seriously – which in 17th century Japan was as expensive as crack cocaine. The seven samurai are the Bald Guy (Takashi Shimura), the Madcap (Toshiro Mifune), the Horny Kid (Isao Kimura), the Master Swordsman (Seiji Miyaguchi), and the Three Overweight Dudes. You can easily spot such a combination of characters in recent flicks, say, “Saving Private Ryan.” Tom Hanks assumes the role of the Bald Guy, who is wise, experienced, the leader. The Horny Kid, the newbie, takes the form of the interpreter, while the Master Swordsman has become the Sniper dude, who is very good in his craft and kicks more asses than the rest of the team. So perhaps it’s true this movie was the first to exploit these basic concepts, but seriously, does being the “first” necessarily mean you created these ideas? Are these ideas really “invented” by Kurosawa, or are they just a natural progression of artistic thinking? Is it that but for “Seven Samurai,” we won’t be seeing these ideas today? I doubt that.
To me, and probably everybody of my generation, “Seven Samurai” is a great flick not because of its influence on cinema, but the story that draws us in. Come on, this movie was released in the same year my mother was born, so it’s possible I wasn’t too thrilled by the narrative, which may be groundbreaking back in 1954, but has become the norm these days. In particular, the whole concept about love vs. tradition, as demonstrated by the American romance between the Horny Kid and a village chick, feels just a little clichéd today.
The story works because of the situation. The attack from the bandits is imminent, and if the samurai know any math, they know they have to hack up like seven to eight guys each. It’s an extremely fucked up scenario and our heroes must face it at the risk of losing their own lives. The middle portion of the film sees the samurai instructing the peasants in defending the village, and in a way, they resemble soldiers going to war. Even with the comic relief in several of the scenes, the forthcoming attack casts a shadow on the characters, and we, as viewers, are eager to know how it is all going to resolve, bearing in mind that no matter how well trained these people are, there are bound to be casualties.
Further strengthening the plot is our sympathy for the characters. The peasants are real poor because the bandits are more ruthless than the Tax Authority. One particular scene that sticks out in my mind features two peasants weeping after they realize the rice they brought with them to pay the samurai with has been stolen. According to one of them, they have to eat a lot of shitty food like grass roots to save up that pot of rice, and I absolutely feel sorry for them. The samurai, on the other hand, also win our respect because they do favors. I mean, when is the last time somebody did you a favor at his own detriment? 1978? The samurai decide to help the peasants out because of their sense of duty and honor, and even if it’s just a movie, you don’t want anything bad to happen to them.
The movie is over three hours long, but it never gets boring. Things happen in every frame and there are no pretentious dialogues, just a solid story told the solid way. I am not the kind of people who watch movies to learn life lessons, so I don’t really dig into the moral aspect of the film regarding duty and social roles. To me, “Seven Samurai” is great just because of the quality drama with a plot that grabs our attention throughout. The action is great too – excellent choreography with nice close-up shots – but the bandits are fucking stupid, don’t you think?
8********stars
© 2002 Geeky Marcus
NATURAL BORN VIEWERS.
.
TOP TWENTY