100 All-Time Films (To see the entire list, click here)
Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai (1954)
The quintessential masterpiece from arguably the greatest director who ever lived. It is one of the most influential films and one of only a few Japanese films that became widely known to the West for an extended period of time. It is a high concept plot about seven ronin (masterless) samurai who protect a defenseless town from raiding invaders. This almost four-hour film takes its time and the patient viewers are rewarded in the end.
The Seven Samurai is considered to be one of the first films to devote itself to the topic of gathering a team of heroes to accomplish a specific task, a plot device used almost too commonly nowadays. Examples of this would be The Dirty Dozen, Ocean’s Eleven, Inception, and The Magnificent Seven, the western remake of Kurosawa’s film. Another relatively new idea was the introduction of the reluctant and moral hero.
The length of the film allows the characters to breathe and warm your hearts. You know each and every samurai and learn to love them for their different ways. Toshiro Mifune stands out as the “faux” samurai, the odd one who is perceived to be too foolish and inexperienced to join the mission. A very different role for the typically badass Mifune but one that he succeeded brilliantly at.
Personally, this is one of my all-time favorite films and truly one of the few epics. A film like this will never be repeated or topped and nor should it be attempted. Kurosawa made a film that cemented his legacy as one of the greatest auteurs in cinema.
