#79-B: SEVEN SAMURAI (1954)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

6

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

No

BEST SEQUENCE

The final battle in the pouring rain and the mud

BEST LINE

"Again we are defeated. The winners are those farmers, not us” - Kambei, the leader of the seven, reflecting on their hollow victory; the last line of the movie

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

100%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Arguably Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece, The Seven Samurai is an epic adventure classic with an engrossing story, memorable characters, and stunning action sequences that make it one of the most influential films ever made."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"A veteran samurai, gathers six samurais to protect a village from the cruel bandits. As the samurais teach the natives how to defend themselves, the village is attacked by a pack of 40 bandits."

THOUGHTS

• Well, it's a seminal movie, groundbreaking and influential as hell. The genesis of several classic movie tropes, a few people have even called it the first modern action movie. It shows up time and time again on lists of the greatest movies ever made. And in my opinion, it was just fine
• There's definitely some good filmmaking here, with exciting and dynamic battle scenes, engrossing camerawork, and some lovely scenery. But as a whole story, it didn't have my attention locked down
• Part of this may be due to the 3 1/2 hour runtime, with things only really getting into gear during the last hour or so. The long buildup might have been intended to develop the characters and make the action more meaningful, but I didn't really form strong opinions about any of the characters aside from the leader of the group, Kambei, who I thought was wise and brave and well acted by Takashi Shimura
• And really, despite this being considered an important movie, one that I've heard about my whole life, that's about all I have to say about it. It was fine. It was long. I'm not sure I'll have the urge to come back to it ever again. I have it to thank for all the other movies and directors that it inspired, but I'll just watch those other movies, thanks. Do we have any dissenting opinions out there? By all means, tell me what I may have been missing

Up Next: Gaslight, a thriller from 1944, which did indeed inspire the common term used today!