70 years after its release, Kurosawa’s epic classic is still essential to modern filmmaking.
The Big Picture
-
Seven Samurai
could be considered the first modern action movie, revolutionizing the genre with epic storytelling and memorable characters. - The film utilizes the three-act structure effectively, focusing on team-building, preparation, and climactic battle, developing both characters and setting.
- The action-packed climax showcases Kurosawa’s filmmaking talents with revolutionary editing, fast-paced choreography, and atmospheric scenes, influencing the action genre.
It would be a stretch to call Seven Samurai the first action movie. After all, one has to take into account the existence of silent classics like 1926’s The General and (arguably) 1927’s Best Picture-winning Wings, as well as swashbuckling action/adventure movies from Hollywood’s Golden Age like 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood. What’s less of a stretch, however, is to call Seven Samurai the first modern action movie, in a sense; the first to mold numerous tropes and conventions that had already proven successful within the action genre into one remarkable epic. It is also far from the only great film Akira Kurosawa ever directed during his long and varied career – indeed, it might not even be his “most” epic – but it’s the one for which he’s best known. Yojimbo may have directly inspired one pivotal and early Spaghetti Western, and The Hidden Fortress is often tied to influencing Star Wars. But it’s Seven Samurai that helped revolutionize and redefine an entire genre.
Functioning as the gold standard of the samurai genre as a whole, Seven Samurai is an epic action movie about desperate villagers seeking protection, and hiring a ragtag group of warriors to defend their village from an inevitable bandit attack. Playing out over 3.5 hours, Seven Samurai is certainly a long film, but stands as an undeniably rewarding one that is worth devoting the better half of an afternoon – or just about an entire evening – to. Anyone who loves what action movies have become in the decades since Seven Samurai owes it to themselves to watch the film at least once, too, just to appreciate that level of influence. Its patient storytelling, steady build to a fantastic climax, excellent character development, strong emotional moments, and ahead-of-their-time action scenes have all proven greatly influential for the genre as a whole, with plenty of post-1954 films taking all these fantastic ingredients and using/remixing them in continually exciting ways.
Seven Samurai
A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.
- Release Date
- April 26, 1954
- Director
- Akira Kurosawa
- Cast
- Toshiro Mifune , Takashi Shimura
- Runtime
- 207 minutes
The Satisfying “Building a Team” Premise of ‘Seven Samurai’
For better or worse, a good many successful stories play out over three acts, and few use this well-worn structure quite as effectively as Seven Samurai. Essentially, thanks to the length, each act gets to be a little over an hour long, with the first act being about assembling a team, the second focusing on preparations for battle, and then the third depicting the climactic fight itself. The premise might sound simple, and technically, such a story can be told within a runtime of approximately two hours; just look at the also well-loved The Magnificent Seven (1960), which is basically Seven Samurai but as a Western instead of a samurai film. Seven Samurai might take its time, but it never wastes your time, using its length to introduce various compelling characters, expertly establish stakes, and then build tension as the inevitable action-packed third act gets progressively closer.
The threat the villagers have to deal with is introduced in the very first scene. Things immediately progress to discussions of how to deal with it, and then once someone has the plan of hiring samurai with the few resources (mostly just food) the town has, that’s exactly what the movie moves onto. The first hour might not be as exciting as the rest of the film, and could be patience-testing for new viewers, but it pays off by the end. The villains may remain underdeveloped, but there are numerous key villagers who are introduced, and then, of course, come the title characters. Because each is recruited at a steady pace throughout the opening act, all manage to have easily definable characteristics; each stands out and becomes endearing in their own way. Takashi Shimura – a favorite of Kurosawa’s – shines as the eventual leader of the group, Kambei Shimada. Additionally, Toshiro Mifune naturally steals the show as the charismatic, strange, roguish, and ultimately loyal Kikuchiyo, and there’s also the cool, collected, and expertly trained Kyūzō, who shouldn’t be overlooked just because his actor, Seiji Miyaguchi, isn’t as well-known as Shimura or Mifune.
How ‘Seven Samurai’ Benefits from Building Up to One Big Climax
There are flashes of swordplay and action throughout the aforementioned first act of Seven Samurai, with the duel that introduces the character of Kyūzō being particularly memorable. But that first hour or so is largely focused on introducing a threat and then the key players who’ll take part in addressing the issue at hand. The film moves back to the small village introduced in the film’s opening scenes for its second act, and the story stays focused there until the final scene. If there’s a way to define the second act beyond saying that it builds tension and continues to develop characters, it’s that it is pivotal for establishing geography. It’s the village that needs defending, and it’s the village where the action of the final act goes down. As the samurai train villagers and work out the strengths and weaknesses of the location from a defender’s perspective, this small mountain village itself becomes something of a character.
Nothing Influenced ’60s Westerns Like Akira Kurosawa’s Samurai Movies
Cowboys are a bunch of nerds! Give me some samurai!
Once more, things come back to runtime. Time is needed to properly establish an entire village – even a small one – and that’s what is done with both patience and efficiency throughout the middle act of Seven Samurai. For all the film’s influence, this might be one key part that’s not often replicated in comparable action movies, given the act of having prominent, well-developed characters and a distinct setting side-by-side takes time to execute. One can see the influence in other epic movies that have great action, at least, particularly with The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In The Two Towers, the legendary Helm’s Deep sequence works in part because the geography of the place that needs defending is well-explored, and tension builds as the battle nears. A similar thing can be said about the Battle of the Pelennor Fields/Siege of Minas Tirith in The Return of the King. Indeed, that city was glimpsed as early as The Fellowship of the Ring, two years before The Return of the King came out. Those films are more than action movies, sure, but the action that’s most memorable takes place in well-developed locales. It was similarly done in Seven Samurai, with the eventual action hitting harder because the audience understands both the characters and the place they need to fight in.
Character Development, Sacrifices, and Consequences Leave an Emotional Mark in ‘Seven Samurai’
Given there are just seven samurai with inexperienced (yet determined) villagers against a gang of bandits with approximately 40 members, Seven Samuraieffectively tells an underdog story on an epic scale. It’s not shy about continually showing the odds are stacked against the heroes, either. Throughout the battle that takes up a considerable amount of the film’s final act, there are numerous casualties. And sure, in action movie fashion, there are more bad guys killed than good guys. But the heroes are vulnerable, as are the villagers. There is a sense of danger right from when the action starts to pick up, and it hangs in the air until the battle is finally concluded and one side stands victorious. Tension was both built and felt earlier in the film, sure, but in Seven Samurai’s later scenes, it’s palpable.
Seven Samurai doesn’t have a patent for unexpected deaths, but when looking at those earliest of films that can be considered action movies, there isn’t quite as much danger. Though the odds are stacked against Buster Keaton’s protagonist in The General, it feels unlikely that he’ll fail to win back both his beloved train and his beloved before the film’s over. Similarly, as exciting as he may be to watch, it’s hard to feel like Errol Flynn will ever die while swashbuckling, particularly when he’s playing a legendary figure like Robin Hood. To return to Wings, though, that film does have stakes, owing to it being a melodrama and having its action take place during wartime. Seven Samurai is in a similar vein; though not a war movie in the traditional sense, it reflects the harsh reality of genuine combat by showing that lives can be lost in a flash, regardless of one’s morality. Life was tough in Japan back in the 1500s for farmers and warriors alike, and Seven Samurai isn’t shy about showing that.
The Revolutionary Editing and Fast-Paced Action of ‘Seven Samurai’s Climax Endures and Inspires
Stakes, drama, and emotional payoffs are good and all, but when it comes to pure action, it’s stuff like cinematography, editing, choreography, and atmosphere that really counts. The sequences of the village being defended in Seven Samurai’s final act thankfully deliver in spades when it comes to these qualities, and showcase Kurosawa’s filmmaking talents better than just about anything else he’s directed. The editing is remarkably precise and fast-paced in the most frantic of moments during Seven Samurai, making it feel particularly ahead of its time when compared to other movies of the 1950s. Moments of physical violence occur quickly and realistically, and though the film is certainly not graphic by today’s standards, a good chunk of the climax takes place in the rain, with water and mud mixing, covering bodies and scenery, and proving to be an effective substitute for blood.
It can be hard to define great action in a technical sense, but you know it when you see it, and you see a lot of it by the time Seven Samurai concludes. From The Magnificent Samurai to The Dirty Dozen, to more recent films like Rebel Moonand arguably Avengers: Endgame, the premise of assembling a team, preparing for combat, and then fighting during the climax has proven successful time and time again. Seven Samurai also perfectly showcases how to develop characters and build a memorable location. It shows that consequences and sacrifices are key to making action scenes feel more impactful, and its technical qualities were remarkable for 1954, so much so that the film still feels explosive and exciting 70 years later. It’s thanks to Seven Samurai that the action genre as a whole has thrived and entertained millions, and its numerous great qualities (not all of which were covered in the last 1700-ish words) should never be forgotten, nor taken for granted.
Seven Samurai is available to watch on Max in the U.S.
This article was originally published on collider.com