The legendary “Seven Samurai” routinely gets mentioned as being an all-time classic. It had one heck of a reputation to live up to and I think it’s worthy of all the praise. Often cited as the best film from the masterful Akira Kurosawa (“Ran”, “Tokyo Story”) and also seen as arguably the best picture to be made in Japan, “Seven Samurai” is a true masterpiece. It has inspired countless imitators, most notably the Western movie “The Magnificent Seven”.

With their village designated a target by bandits, peasant farmers decided to enlist the help of samurai warriors to defend their homes and their lives. Seven ronin are recruited but it will be no easy task as they must prepare to face an enemy that outnumbers them.

The samurai characters are just fantastic. My favourites have to be the calm leader Kambei (Takashi Shimura “Ikiru”) and the unstable Kikuchiyo (Toshirô Mifune “Rashomon”). However, they are all very entertaining. I also like the complex nature of the characters. The village folk are not saintly by any means and we come to realise that they are perhaps just as flawed as the bandits that want to attack them. We see very little of the bandits and I like that because it helps you become more engaged with the perspective of the villagers and the samurai warriors.

“Seven Samurai” is a very long film but like “Gone With The Wind”, it’s completely worth it. The action scenes are very impressive for its time and there is actually a surprising amount of action in this movie with numerous battles as the samurai try to stop the bandits from destroying the village. The music is great, the story is interesting and some of the characters are amazing. Do not ignore it just because it’s a foreign film or because it’s in black and white.