Seven Samurai

Dir: Akira Kurosawa

1956

*****

Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is regarded as one of the greatest films of all time and for good reason, as it represents a pivotal moment in the history of cinema. Seven Samurai set a new precedent in how all future films would be made, specifically altering narrative and directional techniques. The idea of gathering a group of heroes for one specific task is probably one of the most copied ideas in the history of film and it all started here. There is a school of thought that suggests that pretty much every plot in current film can be attributed to one of Kurosawa's original scripts and I think there is a lot of weight behind that idea. It has also been noted that this is the first time a main character has been introduced to an audience while undertaking something unrelated to the film's main plot. Kurosawa's pioneering camera work also led to the widespread use of telephoto lenses, Seven Samurai being the specific film in which he mastered the technique. It was also the first time that a film maker had used so many extra cameras at one time, adopted quickly by action film makers. Indeed, above all, Seven Samurai is an action film and the first of its kind in the genre that would influence every actioner made thereafter, in one way of another. The story's pyrrhic victory has its origins in history, as Kurosawa, who wanted to make a day in the life of a Samurai drama to begin with, discovered a similar story in history books and decided it would make a much more interesting film. Again, this idea has been copied many times over, particularly in melodrama. As much as I love it, it is something I feel is milked a little too much in the 1960 Cowboy remake TheMagnificent Seven. I also love the character development. The story has now been retold many times but still the development of the characters has never been as thorough as is seen in the original. Originally it was going to be Six Samurai but Kurosawa felt that one of the characters should be a different kind of warrior, someone a little off-the-wall but instead of changing one of the well written characters, he simply added a new one. The filming took over a year and cost nearly £500,000, quite a large amount of money in 1956, even for a big film production. The studio ran out of money and shut twice during this time, putting back the filming by some months. The final battle scene which was meant to be filmed in summer ended up being shot in the below freezing temperatures of early February. The actors later recounted what it was like, stating that it was almost impossible to move and hard to breath but they had invested so much in the film, they had to carry on. The performances are faultless, so you'd never guess of their hardship. The Seven are led by the great Toshiro Mifune. It's hard to say whether it is his career best because he is amazing in everything he was in, I don't think he was anything other than brilliant and his is one of many fantastic performances. Kurosawa created the seventh character for him and gave him a lot of creative control. He once said of the actor "The ordinary Japanese actor might need ten feet of film to get across an impression; Mifune needed only three. The speed of his movements was such that he said in a single action what took ordinary actors three separate movements to express. He put forth everything directly and boldly and his sense of timing was the keenest I had ever seen in a Japanese actor. And yet with all his quickness, he also had surprisingly fine sensibilities". Mifune was once again, and not for the last time, joined by the great Takashi Shimura. Nothing against Yul  Brynner and Steve McQueen but they don't even come close to the greatness of Mifune and Shimura. Daisuke Kato (who also worked with the great Yasujirô Ozu and Mikio Naruse during his career) and Kurosawa regulars; Isao Kimura and Minoru Chiaki and Seiji Miyaguchi and Yoshio Inaba make up the rest of the seven. It is sublime viewing from beginning to end. It is over three hours long but it doesn't feel like it, such is Kurosawa's ability to transfix an audience. It's a faultless masterpiece, it's no surprise that it forms part of the blueprints of nearly every film that came after.