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Seven Samurai - Criterion Collection Actor: Toshirô Mifune Director: Akira Kurosawa Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Academy Ratio Format: Black & White Audience Rating: Unrated Running Time: 208 minutes Studio: Criterion Collection Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 1999-03-01 Buy from Amazon |
 ""Danger always strikes when everything seems fine.""Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" is a breathtaking film experience. It is a stunning film that is filled with grand performances and breathtaking battle sequences. Every one who watches will felt like they have journeyed with these seven men through the film as they prepare to save a small village from bandits. The final forty-five minute battle sequence will have you on the edge of your seat until the very end. Though the film is over three hours long, the film's amazing cast, the breathtaking battle scenes, and the outstanding cinematography will grab you, and you will forget about the length. So prepare for battle with the "Seven Samurai!" Movie/DVD Grade: A+ "We have nothing but rice. Then find hungry Samurai."Wow! It is a very old movie. It is a very good movie. The story is simple. A village needs to be protected from outlaws. They hire Samurai to defend themselves. The line between Outlaw and Samurai in 19th century Japan is a fine one, should the villagers fear the outlaws or the Samurai that they have hired? An amazing movie, I'm dissapointed that Japanese Cinemma never fully developed into a more powerful force in todays movie industry. Their culture is alien enough to be fresh, but familiar enough to remind us of our own wild west. A great movie that the SERIOUS movie buff would be honored to have in his/her collection. "the very best of cinema"i'm not going to get all into the production details of this movie and where it is located and all that jazz. what i want to say is that this movie is the best thing to ever grace my sight. at first i thought it would be tough getting used to full-screen ( i hate full screen formats!). but alas, the movie was so good i didn't even realize the black bars were gone. of course, akira kurosawa didn't use widescreen until after the fifties, or was it late fifties...hmm? all i know is yojimbo is in wide screen and it didn't come out too long after seven samurai. and i found out something new after watching this movie: toshiro mifune is/was the greatest actor of his time. he steals nearly every scene with his humor and genuine zest for life. the movie is black and white and runs about three and a half hours. there is an intermission halfway through, i don't know how long that is, i always skip it. but anyway, this is probably the best movie ever made, and probably will keep that title in my book until they resurrect the great kurosawa and make him perform another miracle. the film takes place in a small village, one that bandits keep raiding for food, and the villagers are too poor and hungry to fight them off themselves, so they go on a little journey to hire some samurai. some hilarity ensues in the recruiting process but once everyone is on board, buckle up for the greatest movie going experience of your life. but seriously, this movie really is that good. mostly for the character interaction. when something is funny, it's not funny just to make the audience laugh, but it's because whatever is happening on screen to the characters is funny, and they laugh about it, too. when something goes wrong, the movie takes a very serious turn, and when someone or something is sad or depressed, you can't help but feel their pain. i think akira kurosawa was the only director to ever catch such human nature on film, and he directed everything, so he must've really knew what he was doing. and to think, a legendary movie such as this got mixed reviews when it was released in japan in the fifties. and was like number three in the best movies of the year, there, that year. so, it's not for everybody, but i do think that every person alive should see this movie at one point in there life. but a bit of a warning, after you see this movie and really appreciate what a masterpiece it is, every other movie will seem so much less important. everything else will just turn to crap in your eyes, because this is THE movie to watch. it's sheer genious and i feel very lucky to have seen it, and even luckier to own it. "Pricey but WORTH IT."Kurosawa's immortal masterpiece gets a new finish, with Criterion's excellent print restoration technology. The extras on the DVD are few, (a trailer and a commentary,) but it's really the improved audio/visual quality that makes this a worthwhile DVD for your collection. I won't go into the story of the film since that can be readily found elsewhere, but it is worth remarking that its spin-off "The Magnificent Seven," while a fine film in its own right, can't hold a candle to this classic original. Roberts and Sturges in making "The Mag. 7" managed to copy several scenes, but shyed away from several of Kurosawa's more controversial themes and gave less attention to camera work, particularly to shooting the landscape. I can't be sure, but it seems that Kurosawa deliberately added wind effects. His use of natural moon, fire, and sun light to complement the artificial sources is overwhelmingly powerful in intensifying a scene. His depiction of rural Japan seemlessly weaves the forces of nature and human affairs into a unity that is as rustically believable as it is beautiful. Toshiro Mifune, that prolific Japanese film hero in other roles, is superb as the surly but lovable Kikuchiyo as is Takashi Shimura cast as the jaded and battle-worn but martially accomplished Kambei. "Shichinin No Samurai" is undoubtedly one of those rare films that transcends genre boundaries and appeals universally. A true classic. "One of the World's Greatest Movies"Akira Kurosawa was a director of legendary ability. His Japanese films are among the cream of the crop - "Ran", "Yojimbo", "Ikiru" and "Rashoman" are as important to film history as Hitchcock's Greatest Work. The Seven Samurai is widely considered his greatest achievement. Over and over, when lists of "Greatest Movies in History" are made The Seven Samurai appears at the top of all movies not made in English. It is frequently ranked alongside "Citizen Kane", "Casablanca" and "The Godfather" as one of the greatest movies period. So - those are some of this movies' credentials. Is there a reason you SHOULDN'T see "Seven Samurai"? Well - it's over three hours long. It's in Japanese, so you either have to watch a dubbed version or read subtitles if you don't understand Japanese. The central conflict of the film is between heartless bandits and noble Samurai and there are action sequences, some violence and deaths. Not scared off yet? Good. I would easily exhaust the space limitation here trying to extol all of the virtues of this virtuoso film, so I'll try to give you some personal feelings. Set hundreds of years ago in feudal Japan, a group of bandits comes around periodically to raid a small peasant village of the small goods that their hard work has produced that year. The village leaders meet with the local wise man and agree to recruit Samurai to protect the village. Since they only have rice to repay these Samurai they know they're looking for some hungry Samurai. The opening act gives you these facts elegantly and concisely then leads to the recruitment sequence where we get to meet the Seven Samurai one at a time. Although all are excellent warriors we learn their personalities - the wise one, the "good buddy", the master swordsman, the young one. Determined to crash the group is Japanese legend Toshirô Mifune as Kikuchiyo. The other Samurai see through his attempts to impersonate a Samurai, but bring him along to humor themselves. By the end we see that Kikuchiyo has a noble warrior's heart, and the scene where he confesses his peasant background is one of the most moving I have ever seen. The third act deals with the Samurai back at the village - trying to set up defenses and train the peasants in basic fighting skills. At the same time the villagers are distrusting of the Samurai. They worry that they might plunder the village themselves - both their goods and their women. A beautiful daughter is disguised as a young boy to shield her. Kurosawa is an absolute genius at showing us the human natures of the various characters. The wise ones recognize their limitations and what they're up against. The foolish ones aren't as insightful, but Kurosawa gives us a very knowing look at their humanity as well. Heroism, nobleness, self-sacrifice and courage are all prominent themes. The characters find their way into your heart and in the climactic battle in the final scene many of them are larger than life. Highly recommended. |
