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Seven Samurai Review

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Submitted By midnightair
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Seven Samurai

For the review I watched one of my already favorite films, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. There are so many fantastic elements of this film. I will break down each element from Camera work, lighting, design, costumes, acting, and story and script. The most important samurai movie is Akira Kurosawa's 1954 feature, Seven Samurai, which not only impacted the way the genre was viewed, but elevated its status. Seven Samurai was influential not only in Japan and for foreign film enthusiasts, but it led to a popular and reasonably faithful remake, The Magnificent Seven. And, although Japanese critics during the '50s were dismissive of the picture, it has since achieved an almost mythical status and was recently selected by a group of '00 critics as the Best Japanese Movie of All-Time.
Curiously, for a feature that is often viewed as the standard-bearer of the samurai movie, Seven Samurai is actually an atypical genre entry. An "average" samurai film focuses on a sword-wielding, superhero-type individual who battles his way through the story, often triumphing over a seemingly overwhelming host of foes. Seven Samurai offers us flawed protagonists, some of whom are not skilled fighters, and one of whom is often drunk, belligerent, and decidedly non-heroic in his approach. The odds are impressive, yet, in large part due to the melancholy tone adopted by Kurosawa during the closing scene, the victory is hollow, and almost feels like a defeat. (The lead samurai's final words: "So. Again we are defeated. The farmers have won. Not us.")
Seven Samurai is richly deserving of its high place in cineaste circles. Despite its epic length and scope, the key to the movie's success is that it focuses on a small group of characters. (The actual number of fully realized individuals is three, not seven – several of the "secondary" samurai are only sketchily developed.)

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