I am going to watch some old movies for the holidays. First up is a film by the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, who is mostly known for period films involving samurai warriors, the early ones influenced by American westerns and even Shakespeare. But he also made political and social message films that still have a contemporary feel, like High and Low, The Lower Depths, Ikiru, Red Beard, The Bad Sleep Well and Rashomon, the latter which is unmatched in showing how differing viewpoints can create differing realities. He also made films like Yojimbo and Sanjuro, which certainly look to have had an influence on Italian “spaghetti westerns.”
Kurosawa stood out not just because he told a good story, but he was technically brilliant and in his best work he was a master at drawing the audience into the story. Take for example the opening scene of the comedy/adventure film The Hidden Fortress, my favorite Kurosawa film and which George Lucas admits was a major influence on the original Star Wars. Here we see the two greedy peasants (who Lucas modeled the two droids on) watching in fright at something. What is it? We want to know too:
After we see what the peasants
have just experienced, we are left in the same boat as they are, wondering why the
dead samurai is in such a ridiculous posture:
But there is a difference between what is a “favorite” film, and what cannot be denied is what is “best.” For Kurosawa, of all his great films, his masterpiece is clearly Seven Samurai, in which he put out all the stops in creating a film that was philosophically stimulating, and combined drama, comedy and action that in the end leaves the viewer as emotionally drained as the surviving samurai.
Without further ado let’s watch this film. The title cards tell us that “In the early 16th Century, Japan was in the throes of civil wars, and the farmers everywhere were being crushed under the iron heels of cruel bandits.” We then see a scene of a group of these bandits on horseback, apparently riding day and night, arriving on top of a hill overlooking a farming village:
The bandit leader observes that they have already looted this village of rice the previous fall and they probably have nothing left. They decide to wait until the barley crop has ripened. When they ride away, a farmer arises from the edge of the hill, hidden by the driftwood collected on his back; his expression indicates craven fear:
The farmers gather together to take stock of the situation. Here we see three important characters to the story: in the center is Manzo (Kamatari Fujiwara) who would prefer to give-in to the bandits' demands, and to his right is the clearly simmering Rikichi (Yoshio Tsuchiya) who won’t take any more of the bandits’ thievery, and next to him is Mosuke (Yoshio Kosugi) who is uncertain and often serves as a mediator between the two sides:
Here we see Mosuke holding back a clearly incensed Rikichi from attacking the fatalistic Manzo:
Again we see the dynamic in play here, with Rikichi, after being rebuffed in his suggestion that they make spears and fight the bandits, leaving the group as the odd man out, the nail standing up that must be hammered down. But now it is Mosuke who is standing up, and he convinces the rest to get another opinion, this time from the town’s wizened old patriarch, Gisaku (Kokuten Kodo):
Gisaku scolds the fearful Manzo, siding with Rikichi; he tells the farmers that even if they lose the fight, they will die anyways from starvation after the bandits have taken all their food. He suggests that in order to even the odds, they go out and find hungry samurai willing to fight for a bowl of rice.
So off go Rikichi, Manzo, Mosuke and the bumbling village idiot Yohei (Bokuzen Hidari) to the nearest town to hire out-of-work samurai, usually referred to as “ronin.” At first they are not successful, as some samurai still have their “pride”:
The four spend the evening in some dilapidated shack while two coolies (unskilled laborers) spend their time gambling their pay and laughing at the audacity of the farmers. Overhearing the farmers desire to hire samurai, one arises from his straw bedding and gingerly steps away from the coolies and offers his services; the coolies laugh at him and warn the farmers that this samurai is a cowardly man and isn’t worth their interest:
The next morning Rikichi and Manzo have at it:
Manzo of course wants to quit the venture, while Rikichi insists on continuing the search. While Rikichi is demeaning Manzo’s manhood, the fight is interrupted by the arrival of a samurai followed by a crowd of people. It appears that a bandit has kidnapped a child and is holding it ransom for money; the samurai, Kambei (Takashi Shimura) has a solemn demeanor and immediately commands respect. He is also a very human character; here he cuts off all his hair—including the topknot denoting his elevated social status—in order to impersonate a monk to fool the bandit and save the child:
The farmers watch in awe; joining them is another important character, Katsushiro (Isao Kimura). He is a young man born of wealth, apparently enamored with the “star” status of the samurai, although he will have much to learn about its reality.
And another character barges in to take front and center: Kikuchiyo (the great Toshiro Mifune).
Kambei is not armed, but by momentarily distracting the bandit with a rice ball thrown to him, Kambei disarms him and kills him with his own sword:
Kambei’s obvious attributes as a "professional" samurai have made him an instant idol to Katsushiro, and as a samurai who willingly comes to the aid of lower class people for no benefit to himself, he has given hope to the farmers:
The farmers follow Kambei on the road, waiting for the right moment to approach him.
But Kikuchiyo forces himself past them and confronts Kambei; despite his bluster, Kikuchiyo is speechless in the face of Kambei’s obvious superiority. Katsushiro soon follows and shows more deference, beseeching Kambei to take him on as his “pupil”:
When the troop arrives in the next town, Kikuchiyo’s bluster only draws amusement from Kambei, who is unimpressed when Kikuchiyo presents his oversized sword:
Kambei and Katsushiro leave him behind, and Rikichi takes advantage of this opportunity to recruit a seemingly willing samurai:
At first Kambei declines because he is tired of fighting, but the coolie takes a bowl of rice the farmers have prepared for him and shows it to him,
pointing out that the farmers are giving them their best while they themselves eat millet (once characterized as the “poor man’s food”), which shames Kambei. He takes the bowl of rice and tells the farmers that this rice will not go to waste:
Kambei takes over recruiting responsibilities, and is most successful at attracting samurai of both amiable and sympathetic temperament. First is Gorobei (Yoshio Inaba), who is impressed that someone of Kambei’s authority would take on the dangerous mission of saving a village from 30 bandits:
But the mission is endangered when the incompetent bumbler Yohei falls asleep while standing guard over the rice, which is then stolen. Rikichi bemoans this turn of events which threatens the farmers’ mission, but Katsushiro saves the day by tossing them money to buy rice, which indicates that he is in this solely for the adventure:
Next is Kambei’s old friend Shichiroji (Daisuke Kato), who doesn’t need any reason to join save loyalty and trust.
Gorobei, who has taken on the role of Kambei second-in-command, recruits Heihachi; he may not be as skilled as the others, but his sense of humor will come in useful during hard times:
Then there is Kyuzo (Seiji Miyaguchi), a man who appears to let his master swordsmanship do all his talking, but he is also not without human compassion.
Kambei is reluctant to allow the inexperienced Katsushiro to join them, but eventually he consents. That makes six samurai. Who will be number seven? We have already been introduced to Japan’s biggest film star at the time and his huge sword, so despite the fact that the next time we see him he is in a drunken stupor and he doesn’t appear to be a good “fit” for this troop…
…he has to fit in somewhere in this film. In any case, Kambei decides they don’t have time to recruit another samurai and they will leave in the morning. Meanwhile, Manzo has already returned to the village, in a fright that samurai would actually be coming to the village after all. The old man scolds Manzo for being afraid, who seems to believe that the samurai intend on raping his daughter, Shino (Keiko Tsuchima). He decides to cut her hair and dress her like a boy, but Shino will have none of that and tries to run from her father…
…but she trips and falls and he takes her away with knife in hand.
As the samurai journey to the village, Kikuchiyo periodically appears to display his survival skills…
…and his presence is eventually tolerated. The samurai take stock of the position of the village…
…but once entering it, they find they are not greeted by grateful farmers: Rikichi calls out, but no one responds…
…until Mosuke appears, who advises that they talk to the old man for an explanation. He admits that the farmers wake up scared and go to bed scared. Kambei rightly asks why are they scared of the samurai if they expect them to fight for them.
Suddenly a loud banging with a wooden instrument is heard, and everyone runs outside believing that there is danger. Now they want the samurai around…
…and Kikuchiyo, who did the banging, scolds the farmers for their hypocrisy:
The old man arrives on the scene, pleased that everything seems to be alright. One crisis averted because one samurai can speak the farmers’ language.
That night while Rikichi prepares his house for the samurai to stay in, Kikuchiyo finds a woman’s robe; assuming Rikichi is married, he observes that a horse stable is no place to sleep for a man's wife.
Rikichi is clearly upset by this observation, and claims he has no wife; we will see later that there is a good reason why this is a touchy subject for him:
Kambei and Gorobei walk around the village’s perimeter and plan its defense, with Katsushiro serving as observer and messenger:
The other samurai set up barricades and train the farmers to fight. Although Kikuchiyo continually pokes fun at the bumbling Yohei, he in fact feels a great deal of responsibility for his safety:
Later the more romantically-inclined Katsushiro finds himself laying in a patch of flowers when he spots a “boy” picking flowers and demands why he is not training with the others. He notes with embarrassment, however, that he also has flowers in hand:
He chases after the “boy,” only to discover after a brief scuffle that “he” is actually a “she”—Manzo’s daughter Shino:
Next we see another crisis situation between the samurai and the farmers. Kikuchiyo finds Manzo’s stash of samurai armor that was taken off of stray samurai defeated in battle, apparently killed by the farmers themselves. The samurai of course are disturbed by the revelation, and with Kyuzo stating quietly that he wishes he could kill the farmers:
Kikuchiyo, however, is livid by their attitude. He admits that the farmers have any number of negative traits they can think of, but who made them the way they are? “You” did, pointing at the samurai. You burn their villages, destroy their farms, steal their food, take their women:
The samurai now understand that Kikuchiyo was himself born a farmer, and understand the point he is making, filling them with guilt. Although this crisis is averted, Kikuchiyo decides to sleep in Rikichi’s stable instead of his house with the other samurai:
In order to underscore the unity between the samurai and the farmers in their fight against the bandits, Heihachi creates a banner, and although it pokes fun at Kikuchiyo’s status as a farmer/samurai, he is nevertheless accepted as part of their fraternity:
Meanwhile Katzushiro and Shino have a developing relationship; here, he gives his lunch quota of rice to her, but she tells him she will give it to a “granny”:
Kyuzo, out in the woods
practicing his swordsmanship, observes them unseen, and being a decent human
being despite his taciturn nature...
...he offers to save his rice quota during the evening meal and so that Katzushiro can eat his; Kambei demands to know “what is going on?”
Together the samurai meet the “granny” done up to look like she is 150; she tells them that her son was killed by bandits the last time they were here, and she wishes she was dead:
Kikuchiyo, however, feels no sympathy for the granny; he wants to live with some semblance of dignity, and will fight to do so. Kambei then goes to the old man’s house, and while holding his grandchild tells him he and his family must vacate it because it cannot be defended; the old man, however, does not wish to. He will die there if he must:
Kambei and Gorobei are out checking the defensive positions; they note that the farmers guarding the one “opening” where they hope to attract and trap the bandits seem nervous and frightened, which disturbs them. But Shichoriji demonstrates how to increase the farmers’ confidence, and this provides an example for the others to follow.
But suddenly, yet another crisis: Mosuke, who also must abandon his house, throws down his spear and rebels, leading away the others who’s houses cannot be defended:
But Kambei, a leader of men, knowing that allowing this mutiny to continue will be threaten the mission, draws his sword and corners them, forcing them to pick up their spears and get back in line, and this is the last act before intermission:
Next we see the farmers
harvesting the barley; we find Kikuchiyo having a particularly good time, wondering where all the women like this had been hiding:
Heihachi good-naturedly needles Rikichi about not having a wife to make him work harder, which clearly upsets him, and no one knows why:
Heihachi tries to talk to Rikichi when he is alone on guard duty, but he claims he has nothing “bottled-up” inside. Later that night Kambei and Gorobei check the others on guard duty and find Kikuchiyo fast asleep, and take his sword; they warn him he won’t be so lucky next time:
Kikuchiyo is again the butt of jokes when he proves to be a poor horseman:
Katsushiro and Shino have a rendezvous in the flowers…
…when they hear horses braying nearby. Upon investigation, they spot the horses, which belong to the bandits:
When informed of this development, the samurai (save for Kukichiyo) gather in a house near a fortified position, and spot the bandit scouts peering through the barricade, who are obviously surprised to find it there:
The samurai have been trying to
conceal their presence from the bandits, but then Kukichiyo gives the game away
by being his usual rambunctious self, despite the effort to keep him quiet:
The three bandit scouts need to be stopped, so Kambei sends out Kyuzo and Kikuchiyo out after them, with Katsushiro as an observer of their methods. While Kikuchiyo hides in a tree, Kyuzo sits placidly underneath it, fiddling with a flower:
When the three scouts appear, Kyuzo merely stands up and quickly dispatches two of them, while Kikuchiyo catches a third from above and beats him senseless, with the intention to take him in for interrogation:
The samurai have a difficult time holding the vengeful farmers back, but when the old granny appears with a pitchfork to avenge her son’s death, there is nothing they can do to stop it:
Rikichi offers to lead the samurai to a secret lair of the bandits, which appears to be inside a large cavern; Kyuzo, Heihachi and Kikuchiyo plot to set a fire and kill the bandits as they try to escape:
It is early morning, so the bandits and the women they have taken are still asleep:
Except for one woman, who will soon be a catalyst for tragedy. She does not warn the others when she sees the fire, but rather seems to welcome it.
When the bandits do awaken, most of
those present are quickly dispatched as they run mostly naked outside. Unlike the stylized swordplay one sees in
current films, this fighting is real, down and dirty, and sometimes even the most experienced swing-and-miss:
Then the woman emerges from the fire, and Rikichi suddenly runs forward and stands before her. They seem to recognize each other:
But she seems unable to face him, and runs back into the fire. Rikichi attempts to follow her, ignoring pleas to return to the hiding place the others are waiting at; Heihachi attempts to restrain him…
…but then he is shot with one of the guns the bandits have acquired from Europeans; Kikuchiyo demands to know what got into Rikichi’s head, and he admits finally that the woman is his wife, who the bandits had taken, and was undoubtedly used as a sex slave, which presumably caused her too much shame to return to her husband:
Heihachi dies, and is buried on top of the hill in the village cemetery:
But to remind everyone what they need to prepare for, Kikuchiyo runs off, finds Heihachi’s banner, and raises it on a rooftop:
And not a moment too soon, for the bandits appear over the hill:
The farmers wait for them behind the barricades…
…and soon blood is shed:
The farmers perhaps cheer too soon after their initial success…
…for all is not well, since the abandoned houses have been set afire. The farmers they belonged to all race from their posts to bemoan the sight; but this time it is Mosuke who has the calmer head. He arrives to scold those who have abandoned their posts, and they should forget about those "worthless shacks":
The old man and his family remained in their now burning home, and Kikuchiyo and Kambei run off to save them, but only the baby is still alive. Kikuchiyo wails that he was also an orphan baby:
But Kikuchiyo doesn’t dwell on the past; there is a fight to won, and here he feigns being unimpressed when the bumbling Yohei somehow manages to kills a bandit, albeit in the back as he was trying to get away:
The bandits come back at night to look things over, but decide not to risk an attack:
Kambei observes that the bandits have three guns, and tasks Kyuzo to retrieve one of them, which he eventually does, as well as leaving the bandits two fewer in number:
The next morning the bandits attack, but are impeded by the well-prepared farmers, and a few that were allowed inside the village were trapped and killed:
After Katsushiro expresses his admiration for Kyuzo capturing a gun, Kikuchiyo decides he can do that too. Foolishly believing that the bandits’ attack is over, he tells Yohei to take over watching his position while he goes off on his unauthorized mission:
Meanwhile, things are not going well in the bandit camp, and two more are killed on the order of the bandit chief when they try to escape:
Kikuchiyo manages to steal a gun, but Kambei scolds him instead of praising him for abandoning his position:
Which is soon borne out when the bandits attack…
…and Kikuchiyo discovers that his position was breached and two farmers killed…
…and Yohei soon follows:
Kikuchiyo knows he is to blame, and from here on out it is no longer “fun” for him, it is about personal vengeance. He faces down a galloping horse (its Mifune, no stuntman), and he only sees “red” now.
But the day is not over, and tragedy strikes again when Gorobei is killed:
Kukichiyo may behave like a buffoon at times and seem insensitive, but he is a man with deep feelings and is not without a conscience. Here he sits inconsolable next to Yohei’s grave:
Kambei plans with Kyuzo what will be the “final battle,” since both they and the bandits have little energy left, and the bandits are certainly now desperate:
Katsushiro is sent out with instructions for each post to have two sentries on duty while rest sleep, and one farmer at a time is allowed to visit family. Shichiroji allows Manzo to visit his daughter:
Unfortunately the timing is wrong, because Katsushiro has just encountered Shino who has been waiting for him, this time wearing a woman’s outfit:
For the first and only time in a Kurosawa film, what follows is a love scene:
Unfortunately, Manzo, who has been searching everywhere for Shino, finds them alone and realizes that his daughter has done the deed with a samurai, which he had hoped to prevent because he hates samurai more than he hates the bandits:
Manzo disowns his daughter, but this time he is alone in his prejudices; he is the nail who needs to be hammered down:
Kambei tells the unhappy Katsushiro that he expects much from him in the coming battle, because now he has become a “real man,” which breaks the tension:
The farmers bring out the sake (a rice-based beverage akin to beer) they have been hiding. Kambei offers some to the still embittered Kikuchiyo, who instead of drinking from the proffered cup, will reach for and partake from the entire jar:
Just before the final battle, it is decided that they will let all the bandits inside village and get this business over with while they still have the strength:
And the battle begins in a torrential rainstorm; if the combatants' mental and physical conditions were already frayed, now they must fight in horrible conditions as well:
Kikuchiyo's giant sword is broken, and he must now use the "normal" swords that the farmers had taken from defeated samurai.
Kambei kills two bandits with Gorobei’s bow…
…while one of the bandits decides he has had enough and manages to escape:
Katsushiro has just killed a man for the first time (again, in the back while the bandit was trying to get away), and it isn’t as “thrilling” as he thought it would be:
Meanwhile, with the battle being lost, the bandit leader escapes into the women’s hut in order to load and fire his gun:
The bandits now almost all gone, but with the bandit leader in his hideaway, tragedy must again strike. First Kyuzo…
…and then Kikuchiyo, who recovers enough to kill the bandit leader before he himself dies.
At that moment Katsushiro feels the need for blood:
But there are no bandits left to kill. The completely drained Kambei and Shichiroji cannot believe they have survived yet another war.
The three remaining samurai watch the farmers…
…singing and planting rice:
Katsushiro mournfully looks on, knowing he must leave…
...and Shino betrays sadness as well, knowing she must stay:
Kambei tells Shichiroji that the farmers have won because they can return to their lives, while they have lost because there is just another lonely road ahead and more battles to be fought for them…
…leaving behind four of their comrades in arms dead.
There are those who say that Rashomon—Kurosawa’s first international success—is his greatest film; others would say Ikiru. But most critics will say that Seven Samurai represents Kurosawa at his peak, unparalleled in its interweaving of storytelling, philosophy, character development, action, technical brilliance and of course great acting. There seems little doubt the not only is Seven Kurosawa’s greatest film, but has a claim to be the greatest film of all time. Maybe Citizen Kane is the greatest American film, but it can hardly match Seven’s ability to stimulate both the intellect and the need for an exhilarating thrill ride.
There are “epic” films and there are epics. One of the last films I saw in a theater was Titanic; it put me to sleep thirty minutes in and miraculously I woke up just when it started getting interesting, before the iceberg hit. Seven’s three-and-a-half hour journey shows how masterful storytelling and technical brilliance can make such a journey not just quick and painless, but leaves the viewer with the feeling that they have just witnessed something unearthly. There are no wasted shots in Seven; everything that is shown is there only because it is necessary to advance character and action, making for a rapid ride to an exciting climax. Seven is proof that you don’t need special effects, CGI or tricky quick cuts (i.e. Saving Private Ryan) to simulate rousing battle action. It is also proof positive that real people, who are not comic book “superheroes” or “action figures” with phony fighting prowess, can convincingly prevail against the odds when they put aside their differences and class distinctions, and work together.
Seven was the first film in which a cohort of mercenaries, looking for a sense of justification, banded together despite being mostly strangers to one another, but were nevertheless bound together by a shared sense of moral duty in what seemed a clear case of good vs. evil, although in this film as it is in life, even the "good" have their faults. This narrative has been told and retold in one form or another again and again since this film was released in 1954; direct remakes like The Magnificent Seven may be entertaining in their own way, but they are but pale shadows of the original. Of course, "everybody" has “heard” that this is a great film, despite the fact that the only people who have seen it are getting older and rarer. Given the poor state of the “art” of filmmaking (as it is in music) these days, this is a film that more people need to see to discover what true artistic achievement is.
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