This is the original 'seven samurai' story starring the great Mifune and told in the brilliant style of Japan's most famous film director, Kurosawa. The terrifying bandit gang, the villagers, and the seven samurai, their protectors, who are themselves an odd bunch, all come across vividly, with both humour and deadly drama. There is a certain nostalgia at play here too: for the samurai in the twilight of their existence, for a traditional village Japan which is only a distant memory. In black and white, but this somehow makes it more authentic. Highly recommended.

A great book: although a challenging read, it was worth it. I read it in a week and can’t stop thinking about it.

Before Star Wars there was this

How close they followed the story line in the first magnificent seven

Akira Kurosawa created a unique tale of heroism, self-sacrifice, honour, courage and fearlessness in the face of death.

This is an epic film which inspired the likes of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg as well as many other renowned directors. The Magnificent Seven was a western directly based on Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.

Samurai warriors were driven by a code, to fight, to live and to die for honour, in defence of the weak, or in service for the greater cause.

Kurosawa's film is a great depiction of these classical Japanese values embodied in the characters of seven samurai or masterless samurai (also known as "ronin") who undertook defence of a village raided by a large group of heavily armed bandits.

The film despite being black and white and dating back to 1954 is a true masterpiece of cinematography with some revolutionary filming techniques employed by the director and epic soundtrack composed by Fumio Hayasaka. The set was built entirely from scratch at Tagata on the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka and so the film was not shot in the studio but in the real location for greater authenticity and better depiction of the story.

Kurosawa spent a lot of effort in individual character development, presenting each of the samurai with all their virtues and vices, with certain degree of humour and comedy in doing so.

There are also elements of a romance incorporated into the story although presented in a somewhat rudimentary fashion, the main emphasis being placed on battle imagery.

The battle scenes were very well made considering the times the film was shot in. The key battle taking place in heavy rain, which added to dramaturgy of this epic tale culminating in the grand finale.

The actors worth mentioning who distinguished themselves in the film are Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura and Seiji Miyaguchi.

In conclusion, if you're a lover of Japanese samurai cinema, this classic film by Kurosawa is an absolute must. I highly recommend it.

First of all, I know this is a Japanese language film but do not let that turn you away from Seven Samurai. The film is so immersive that you will feel like you are watching a film in English after about five minutes of reading subtitles.
Now, Kurosawa was an absolute master of cinema. Seven Samurai is my favourite film and I watch it at least twice a year. I am glad I finally bought it on Amazon so now I can access it wherever without a CD player. The film, although long, never overstays its welcome. Every scene is important and are either there to progress the story, give character progression, or set the scene for the final battle. The acting is brilliant, notably that of Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura, they are fantastic in every Kurosawa film they are in. The film ticks every box for me, it is funny, happy, tense, thrilling, extremely layered, and incredibly sad at points. There is more than enough in this film to recommend multiple re-watches and the style of Kurosawa deserves to be picked apart and analysed for there may be no better. You can go into this film to see a fun action film with a well written script, or you can go deeper and read between the lines of Kurosawa's masterpiece and get more enjoyment with every watch. The build up to the battle is great and the ensemble play off each other well, with every character having interesting personalities and arcs. The final battle however, is one of the greatest fights in cinema history. The whole thing feels feels like one big pay off from start to finish. Every place is already so perfectly shown to you before the battle that you can follow it knowing exactly where characters are without any second thought. The ending is both triumphant and full of bitter sorrow, it is ambivalent and open to your own interpretation; so watching this with a friend or loved one is a great experience during and after if you love talking about movies. Finally, you will leave with a desire to experience this film all over again. It is a masterpiece through and through.

Considering that this film is 68 years old and is still going strong one can understand why so many adaptations have been made of it. It's like a "Charlie Chaplin " version of this genre. A timeless classic!

Alongside The Human Condition, the greatest film ever made to come out of japan in my view, other people may have a different opinion (but they're wrong lol) . The 3 hours 27 minutes goes so quickly because the story just draws you in to its brilliance. The final combat scenes in torrential rain are just spellbinding. Watch it, and love it.