#22. Seven Samurai
(Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
"This is the nature of war: By protecting others, you save yourselves. If you only think of yourself, you'll only destroy yourself."
(Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
"This is the nature of war: By protecting others, you save yourselves. If you only think of yourself, you'll only destroy yourself."
Much like Lawrence of Arabia, this is a lengthy epic that I don't revisit all that often but which nevertheless feels like a revelation every time I do make time for it. Its elemental high-concept plot in which a village of farmers hire masterless samurai to protect them against the looming threat of a bandit raid. The film runs well over three hours yet maintains an economical approach to narrative, making sure to texture proceedings largely through developing characters - each of the samurai (and enough of the most important villagers) is granted more than enough texture to compensate for their broad archetypes (to say nothing of the rather one-dimensional villains), all illustrating a different facet of life during wartime within the microcosm of a single farming village attempting to fend off devastation. Seven Samurai is also rightly credited with being a massive influence on the action genre - though it is initially used sparingly and escalated as close to the end as possible, this only has the effect of making its capturing of movement (running into battle, collapsing into slow-motion after losing a fight, taking a dishonourable bullet in a fight largely fought with close-range weaponry) all the more indelible. Kurosawa has more than enough masterpieces that even the three I've added to this list both manage to illustrate his status as one of cinema's true masters while also showing by omission just how much more there is to his work.
2005 ranking: N/A
2013 ranking: #52
__________________
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0
I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.