Seven Samurai (1954)
(Shichinin no Samurai)
Country: JAP
Technical: bw 155/195m
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura
Synopsis:
In mediaeval Japan, villagers tire of annual raids by bandits and hire unemployed samurai warriors to protect them.
Review:
Very long but absorbing epic - it is two hours before the bandits make their appearance against the newly defended village. Kurosawa uses this time to establish the varying characters, samurai and peasant alike, and investigate the implications of the rigid caste system that obtained at the time. The action is thrillingly shot and edited, at times in pouring rain, but while he favours close-up for psychology, here he lets the camera sit back as his actors run, scramble and galop, with death invariably coming to them face down in the dust or mud. In fact inspired by the Western genre, the film thus eschews one of the staples of the genre, elevated to iconic status by Morricone: the slow build to the draw. Ironically, Kurosawa utlimately provided the Western with one of its key films (The Magnificent Seven) and Morricone with the first of his.
(Shichinin no Samurai)
Country: JAP
Technical: bw 155/195m
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura
Synopsis:
In mediaeval Japan, villagers tire of annual raids by bandits and hire unemployed samurai warriors to protect them.
Review:
Very long but absorbing epic - it is two hours before the bandits make their appearance against the newly defended village. Kurosawa uses this time to establish the varying characters, samurai and peasant alike, and investigate the implications of the rigid caste system that obtained at the time. The action is thrillingly shot and edited, at times in pouring rain, but while he favours close-up for psychology, here he lets the camera sit back as his actors run, scramble and galop, with death invariably coming to them face down in the dust or mud. In fact inspired by the Western genre, the film thus eschews one of the staples of the genre, elevated to iconic status by Morricone: the slow build to the draw. Ironically, Kurosawa utlimately provided the Western with one of its key films (The Magnificent Seven) and Morricone with the first of his.
(Shichinin no Samurai)
Country: JAP
Technical: bw 155/195m
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura
Synopsis:
In mediaeval Japan, villagers tire of annual raids by bandits and hire unemployed samurai warriors to protect them.
Review:
Very long but absorbing epic - it is two hours before the bandits make their appearance against the newly defended village. Kurosawa uses this time to establish the varying characters, samurai and peasant alike, and investigate the implications of the rigid caste system that obtained at the time. The action is thrillingly shot and edited, at times in pouring rain, but while he favours close-up for psychology, here he lets the camera sit back as his actors run, scramble and galop, with death invariably coming to them face down in the dust or mud. In fact inspired by the Western genre, the film thus eschews one of the staples of the genre, elevated to iconic status by Morricone: the slow build to the draw. Ironically, Kurosawa utlimately provided the Western with one of its key films (The Magnificent Seven) and Morricone with the first of his.