A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.
"Unmatched for suspense and spectacle!"
Fantastic movie with a great touch of reality....
At the top of my favorite films ever. Every time I watch it is see something new. Bandits steal peasants rice. Peasants hire ronin samurai to defend them. Great plot, pace and acting. Akira Kurasawa's best...perhaps....
**Maybe a little overrated, but there's no doubt that it's good.**
Well, I have to start this text with a note that I believe is relevant to understand what I'm going to write: this was the first Japanese film that I remember seeing. I might even be forgetting something I've seen before, but I don't think so. Therefore, I'm not a good connoisseur of Japanese cinema, so I don't want my opinion to be taken with any authority that I don't crave. I know there are people who want that. I do not. I speak, as in any of my reviews, only through my mouth, from the height of my meager wisdom, without...
I must begin by saying I am a bit "attention deficit" and that I never thought I would like subtitles, but this film flows through its long length with such adventure that I don't see how anyone can keep from being entranced with every second.
And it takes a lot to hold my interest.
In case you haven't heard, this "magnificent seven samurai" so to speak, are enlisted one by one to aid a village beset by 40 bandits.
What is often lost is that the story is really "Four villagers". Two are village elders (although not as old as the "grandpa" character they look to for advice). One, Manzo, repr...
Maybe the greatest movie of all-time. This film is an epic accomplishment of long-form storytelling, amazing performances, wonderful camera work and fantastic sets. As is typical of Kurosawa, this movie attacks the theme of greed and is very willing to critically examine the high-status classes, in this case the "honourable" samurai. The characters are likeable for the most and the performance from Toshiro Mifune is absolutely masterful and his character is a brilliantly comic tragic character. The action is very raw with mud and rain and chaos, which I appreciate. The pacing in the middle is ...