Wednesday, 25 April 2012

The originals


Seven Samurai (1954)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa this highly influential samurai film has a large cast that includes frequent collaborator Toshiro Mifune. A farm village in historic Japan is harassed by bandits so they hire samurai to defend them.

Weighing in at just over 3 hours long this is a heavy weight in more ways than one but it largely lives up to it's reputation. The plot was the originator of several elements that are now common place in similar films, gathering the team and introducing the hero in an unrelated side plot. It is hard not to compare the film to The Magnificent Seven (1960) and maybe it does lack some of the cool that oozes from the remake but this is still a great film even if it might be a little on the long side, taking too long to get to the action.

5/5

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