173
Seven
Samurai
(Shichinin no Samurai)
Release date 26th April 1954
Country : Japan
Running time : 190 mins
Genre : Action/Adventure
Starring Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune
Screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
An experienced samurai warrior answers a village's plea for protection from bandits. Recruiting six other samurai to help him they teach the villagers to defend themselves. Finally 40 bandits attack the village resulting in a colossal battle.
A bit overlong but there is no denying the excitement of the battle scenes of this movie. The idea of seven warriors coming together to defend the people from bandits is also a universal one, it is not surprising this idea has been reused in other films since but they lack the code of honour of the samurai.
(Shichinin no Samurai)
Release date 26th April 1954
Country : Japan
Running time : 190 mins
Genre : Action/Adventure
Starring Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune
Screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
An experienced samurai warrior answers a village's plea for protection from bandits. Recruiting six other samurai to help him they teach the villagers to defend themselves. Finally 40 bandits attack the village resulting in a colossal battle.
A bit overlong but there is no denying the excitement of the battle scenes of this movie. The idea of seven warriors coming together to defend the people from bandits is also a universal one, it is not surprising this idea has been reused in other films since but they lack the code of honour of the samurai.
The movie was
remade in the USA as a reasonable Western : The Magnificent Seven
(1960).
DVD
available from The Criterion Collection :
http://www.amazon.com/
DVD Movie Guide
Digitally Obsessed
DVD Beaver
(comparison of editions in various regions)
174 172
Written content copyright Derek McLellan,2005.
Copyright © The Fedora Chronicles
Seven Samurai image from
http://www.jocksamurai.co.uk/
