Allison Mais
December 5, 2000
Film/Video Report
“Seven Samurai”
Humanities 3, Fall 2000
Kurosawa creates a masterpiece with the Seven Samurai. This film was created in 1954, it is a Japanese film and it has English subtitles. The Seven Samurai is a story about a small farming village in 16th century Japan that is under constant threat from traveling groups of outlaw bandits. The elders that live in the village decide to hire a defense force to protect them from these outlaws. They enlist a variety of samurai for hire and samurai are willing to work for their food. The mission of the seven samurai is to protect the village against almost impossible odds.
These people who live in the village need the samurai, but they also fear the samurai. What is really interesting about this film is the difference between the simple farming people and the more experienced samurai. The samurai have lived a life of violence and confrontation and the farming people have lived a very simplistic lifestyle.
The farmers and the samurai must now depend on one another to survive which forces them to have relationships that would not normally take place.
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This film had spectacular performances from the actors, especially Takashi Shimura, who plays Kanbei. Kanbei is a seasoned samurai and he was first chosen by the elders of the village. Toshiro Mifune’s plays Kikuchiyo who is an abrasive samurai who bridges the gap between the warriors and the people who live in the village.
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Kurosawa’s final battle scene is climatic. Kurosawa helps the audience to understand the battle. This film was completely filmed in black and white and the sets, costumes, acting and cinematography all created in this battle scene to show us how a battle scene should be portrayed. The cinematography was grand and the plot was solid and well-established. The characters in this film were well developed and interesting to watch. The acting in this movie was really believable, infact the acting in this film was spectacular. I viewed this movie as a great work of art because it depicted the harshness, the cruelty and the ignorance and weakness of man.
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