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The premise is simple: a small Japanese village is about to be attacked by bandits. The desperate villagers decide to hire masterless samurai (ronin) to protect them. The first act of the film is devoted to the villagers' efforts to find and recruit these men, and includes some of the most enjoyable movie scenes of all time. The first man they discover is Kambei, played by the amazing Shimura Takashi, who exudes charisma and intelligence... and is actually a really nice guy. He's not the stereotypical samurai: gruff or conceited. He treats the villagers more or less as equals. Shimura's performance is sublime, laced with humor and pathos, and Kambei remains one of my favourite movie characters of all time. With Kambei comes Katsushiro, a young, green samurai who ends up falling in love with one of the villagers' daughters. Four other equally interesting samurai join them, leaving only the question of the seventh. At one point, Kambei is ready to give up and live with only six, but then Kikuchiyo shows up. He is played by none other than Mifune Toshiro, who would go on to star in several of Kurosawa's most memorable films. In The Seven Samurai, his characters is brash, raucous and totally unrefined. Kikuchiyo was not born a samurai, but he is determined to join their ranks. It is impossible to describe the joy and sheer physicality that Mifune brings to this role. He truly steals every scene he is in. Kambei reluctantly accepts Kikuchiyo as a member of the party, and they begin planning to protect the village. It would ruin the film to describe the action that follows, because it is so exciting and artfully filmed. However, it is not the action that makes this a great film. It is the pathos that Kurosawa is able to evoke. We truly feel for the villagers' plight, and we come to think of the samurai as friends. Plenty has been written by more knowledgable critics than me about Kurosawa's technique, so I'll move on to the underlying themes. Although the movie is set in the 1600s, the values portrayed are undeniably modern. Kurosawa extolls the importance of individualism with his Kikuchiyo character, whereas traditionally individualism was shunned for conformity. Likewise, Kurosawa stresses humanism - having pity and compassion for others - and I think this is most apparent in Kambei's character. He may be a samurai, but he does not despise the villagers, even when he finds out they had been killing wandering samurai to steal their armor and weapons. Yes, some ideas like honor and loyalty among companions are still present, but they seem to make more sense when placed along Kurosawa's modern values. This is a movie that truly has something for everyone. Humor, action, violence, romance... Kurosawa touches upon every emotion. Unlike the characters in Yojimbo and Sanjuro, these people are not caricatures of real humans. They are real, and we can relate to them. I think that, more than anything else, makes this one of the greatest films of all time, and certainly one of Kurosawa's best works. I would recommend that everyone see this film at least once. |