The story at the center of Seven Samurai has been told many times since the film's release: a small village continually hounded by evil bandits sends men to the City to hire defenders. The defenders will seem to be not up to the task and the villagers will learn to find strength within themselves. The story has been repeated in The Magnificent Seven, a remake of this film, The Three Amigos, and A Bug's Life to name a few favorites. It's a strong core story and works because the looming threat of the bandits' return and the questionable strength of the defenders make for surefire suspense.
Samurai, like our previous entry Grand Illusion, also examines a rigid class structure and how conflict can temporarily throw this structure out of alignment. The Samurai, the honored warrior class, do not socialize with the relatively low on the totem pole farmers. They serve noble families and are paid well, but an ongoing civil war has destabilized 16th century China and increased the likelihood that there will be samurai looking for work and food. The uncertain times bring the noble mercenaries and lowly farmer temporarily together.
Young samurai apprentice Katsushiro will not surprisingly have a romance with the farmer's daughter. We expect as much. They will hide this romance from the girl's father, but not merely because he will disapprove of his daughter's indiscretion, but because it is an insult to the sacrosanct class structure. When the samurai is discovered, is his shame merely that of a man caught in a hidden affair or is it also due to his being caught in a dalliance below his station?
Preparation for the coming fight makes up a large portion of the film. Director Kurosawa does an excellent job of laying out the geography of the village as the samurai survey the land they will defend and attempt to discover its weak points. These scenes give the viewer a sense of geography and allow us to participate fully in the film's epic closing battle. We are right in the thick of the action and have a grasp of the strategy taking place.
The care taken in preparing the viewer for the battle is refreshing. Modern action filmmaking more often than not give an impression of tense battle with quick cuts of explosions or swords clashing accompanied by a heroic theme. We understand that chaos is taking place on an epic scope, but have no sense of what exactly is happening. Kurosawa carefully orients the viewer and never loses you in the mayhem. The skirmish at the climax of this film is very small in size, but Kurosawa still manages to create the sense of an epic battle. Forty armored bandits, a few with firearms, will take on about a hundred villagers. But the stakes are high. The villagers if they lose will surely die. They are not trained warriors and there are not nearly enough samurai to defend the village.
The final battle is one of the best ever filmed. Deaths are sudden and brutal, but Kurosawa does not linger over them. He rushes us on to the next heated skirmish. The unskilled villagers fight badly, but fight with intense hatred. They swarm in large groups and thrust wildly and clumsily with their makeshift spears. Terrorized for years by the bandits, they act out with great fury when in battle. Cutting between wide shots of the village and close ups of hooves falling and spears thrusting, Kurosawa places us in the midst of the battle. The entire effect is thrilling and frequently disturbing. All of this is accomplished with no visible bloodshed.
Kurosawa like Renoir also employs long takes and deep focus to great effect. In early scenes when the villagers are trying to recruit samurai,the director uses a combination of deep focus and forced perspective to underline the villagers' poverty. (Forced perspective is utilized in The Lord of the Rings films to make the actors playing hobbits appear much smaller than others on screen.) The villagers can only pay their potential saviors in rice and their small, but essential, container of rice frequently dwarfs the villagers onscreen. Every shot in the film is carefully composed and full of meaning. We wonder at Kurosawa's camera that both serves story, but also moves with grace and agility. He films movement with such urgency and clarity.
The film is not only notable for the prowess of Kurosawa's construction, but also for the performances. Toshiro Mifune--the inspiration behind Jon Belushi's choleric Saturday Night Live samurai--first appears to be the film's comic relief. He desires to be a samurai, but lacks the necessary refinement and bearing. But he proves to be a valuable morale booster. As the story continues, Mifune develops a darker side to his character as the reasons for his lack of refinement emerge. Takashi Shimura, playing the samurai leader Kambei Shimada, lends his character the necessary gravity while at the same time providing the film's moral center. He is a great leader, but also a humanitarian willing to work for food in defense of the needy.
Seven Samurai is in black and white and features subtitles which have kept it from reaching a broader audience. It has also been done the honor and disservice of being labeled masterpiece which lends it the impression of being stuffy and humorless. The film is, however, is an extremely enjoyable and engrossing action film. Some would say it is The Action Film. It is sure to please both the film snob and average viewer.
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