The film would be the first of director Akira Kurosawa’s fixation with the roles of samurai in feudal Japan. The idea came to him when he was researching the roles and lifestyles of samurai.
Akira Kurosawa has been known to be one of the greatest directors in introducing new ways of filming and portraying philosophical and cultural views, whilst also having moments of humour to enlighten the dark undertones. The film would later be classed as a masterpiece, and be up for many nominations such as the British Academy awards 1956 and the Jussi awards 1959. The film would have a great affect around the world, with influence on films such as the adaptation of The Magnificent Seven.
In feudal Japan, a group of bandits have repeatedly driven a peasant into fear with the threats of killing them if they do not give them their harvest. In a last act of desperation, the village elder offers advice to hire samurai to help fight the bandits.
A couple of the villagers go to a village in search for ‘hungry samurai’, since the only thing of value they have left is rice. Later they would find an old samurai who reluctantly agrees in helping them. After a couple trials, with one funny scene, six samurai are picked to help the villagers; one of which later becomes the old man’s apprentice.
At first the villagers are reluctant to help the samurai due to the differences in class, but they relent, and the samurai and the villagers begin to build fortifications and help train the villagers to fight. Later tensions between the two classes are shown when the villagers have hidden weapons and armour from the samurai, whilst the old man’s apprentice has an affair with one of the villager’s daughters. Nevertheless, the samurai and the villagers continue to build the fortifications and prepare to fight as the bandits come back to kill them all.
The battle for the villagers begins as the samurai face the bandit hordes and it becomes clear that the samurai may not survive.
Seven Samurai takes on cultural and social theories of the once feudal Japan, when the representation of strict divides in class was black-and-white, and, as such, society treated the classes in different ways; the peasants were lower and so were downtrodden, whilst samurai were the rich class and were praised. As such, the film shows how the different classes were relied upon each other; just as the samurai were needed to govern the land, so too were the peasants in prospering it. This reliability was brought to by the director as he wanted to show the comparison with the samurai and the peasants; the views of the samurai in the film are merely hired mercenaries preying on the peasants, whilst the peasants would later be revealed to have preyed on the rich classes. This comparison goes even further, as, unlike the villagers, who would achieve with prosperity, the samurai would have nothing, stating the profession of a warrior was not all glamorous.
The characters of Seven Samurai each has an identity of their own, making it compelling to see how each character mixes with the others, giving a realistic feel to the characters that makes them all so attachable. The villagers, and even the bandits themselves, are given their own perspectives, which make the characters even more realistic. Yet the one that should take the credit is Toshiro Mifune’s character, as he gives depth in that he becomes the most dramatic and yet humorous throughout.
The cinematography captures the essence of each character and adds little tension until it builds to the battle for the village, as if the audience is sucked in to all that’s going on. Because of this, there is little of soundtrack in the film, so that the use of natural noises, such as rain, gives scenes added depth, and adds to the tension between the villagers and the samurai, which carries on to the final battle.
Many of Akira Kurosawa’s films portray a small setting that contains a large number of narratives that may seem to too much to hold, and yet the director is able to keep balance so that nothings feels either thrown in or left out. With the concept of Seven Samurai, even without the use of special effects, Akira Kurosawa makes even the most smallest of fights feel large.
It is this film that starts a benchmark that encourages people to watch more of Akira Kurosawa films, and learn the history and the philosophy of what great film should be.
Fan: Thomas Pearce
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