Rating: 
Summary: The magnificent Seven Samurai
Review: Akira Kurosawa soon became my favorite Director after viewing this feature. Before him my leadings were towards Stanley Kubrick, yet though I still love Kubrick, the styling, wonderful storytelling and emotion that breaths from Kurosawa's directing overtakes me.The Seven Samurai is a story of a small farming village plagued by a group of bandits, who are returning to raid their village after the harvest. The despearte village sends out three men to find them Samurai who will work for very little, basiclly on their honor. After finding a respectable elder ronin (samuri without a master), he aids them in finding five others who will work. The seventh samurai, (one who claims to be a samurai, but is he?) is none other than the great Toshiro Mifune. A wonderful actor, he portrays every emotion vividly and lushously. He follows the group around, and becomes their running joke. When arriving at the village, they find it deserted. The villagers hid from them while they visit the "Granddad" or village elder. Mifune rings the village alarm, sending the villagers from their hiding places screaming, "Help us Samuri, Help us!" Mifune makes the point that the Farmers fear the Samurai, yet when they are fearful of attack, they scream for their aid. It is at that point he is accepted as the seventh member of their small group. More than a story about a farmers being protected by the samurai, the story concerns more closely the deteriation of the once proud samurai class. Most of the ronin in the town craved money and would not defend the innocent village from the attack, and even after the Samurai did not win, the farmers won the battle... you will see what I mean when you purchase this fantastic classic.
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Compelling...
Review: Even though this movie was very long, it kept me riveted with its excellent acting and even better storyline. A must have for any movie collection.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth your time
Review: Let me say first off that Seven Samaraui has influenced a lot of movies that are bad, very bad. Magnificent Seven comes to mind immediately. I find Magnificent Seven to be trite and banal. But that does not diminish the acheivement of Seven Samaraui. The movie is so big--thematically and cinematically--that it transcends the poor imitations that have followed it. This movie has everything--a love story, swordplay, class-struggle, humor, and, of course, plenty of death. Please don't be deceived by other reviews and think that this is just an action film or that the tale is as straight-forward as it appears. The movie is intricate in both its visual construction and its cultural commentary.
The main plot is simple: a farming village is annually raided by bandits who steal their crops. In desperation, it is decided that they must hire samaraui to protect them during the next harvest. Problems arise along the way: the farmers are poor; the samaraui--while they may be disenfranchised from their usual wealthy employers--have honor and are not looking for handouts. The movie plays out all of the ramifications and several other conflicts that arise elegantly and with tremendous artistic saavy. I like Rashomon more. But I would be hard-pressed to disagree with anyone who said that this is one of the five best films ever made. A lot of people I know shy away from it because it is long--over three hours--or because they think they know what the film is about. Don't fall into that trap--take a Sunday afternoon and watch it.
The commentary that is provided with the DVD edition is excellent--probably the most astute observations of Kurosawa I have heard or read. The transfer is pretty good considering the age of the film. And unlike the VHS edition, you don't have to get up to put in tape 2--which is nice.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best ever
Review: This epic adventure is the back bone of many modern themes (Magificent Seven and others). A long movie that really don't seem to mind, this movie is one of the best foriegn films ever produced. Hats off to the Toho Corporation for this masterpiece. This is a must have title for any collection and having it on DVD ensures that it will won't wear out before many more generations can enjoy this movie. It seems a little hard to believe that the company that produced Godzilla started out with this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Seeds of Greatness
Review: Just about everyone and their mother hails this movie as STUPENDOUS, FANTASTIC, MIND NUMBINGLY EXCELLENT. So i went in to this film with high expectations. Overall i was not dissapointed, but i disagree that this is the greatest film everm made and wonder why it gained such wide spread critical appeal. My best guess is that because so many movies have taken from the premise, it is considered genius. In other words it acts as the tempalte for so many other films. But in my opinion this film plants the seeds of an idea that was later refined in the magnificent Seven, and other remakes. And in all honesty I love the Magnificent 7 and like seven Samurai. However that is not to say that this film isn't very good. The acting is excellent for the most part, the story flows very well, and it has a very nice blend of comedy, action and drama...Overall it was a little slow moving, but it kinda needed to be to set up village/samurai relations. But this pace will bore many who are looking for action or 24/7 adventure. A good movie if you can't think of anything else to watch and you wanna see a cool foreign film, plus everyoen will think youre pro becasue you can refrence it and look like your a film buff. The picture on the disc is far from excellent ,but is great considering how old this movie is. Actually it probobly looks jsut like it did when it was fist released. THe sound isnt overpowering and the music and the dialogue mix well together. As far as extras go, there is a commentary, tho i must confess that i didn't listen to it. watched the film once without it and that was enough for me. There is also a trailer on there which is kinda fun to watch, nohing stupendous. I would definately say rent this one first. If you LOVE! old films or LOVE! Magnificent Seven, then buy this as it is an excellent older movie and the grandaddy of M7. In the end i enjoyed the film very much, and was glad i rented it. However doubt i'll ever have the urge to see it again.
Rating:
Summary: a great start
Review: seven samurai is an amazing film and a great place to start for anyone that wants to dip into classic/foreign films, but have been scared away by subtitles, length of the movie, etc.
i know youre out there...been reading about seven samurai your whole life..you love movies..but..feel like you might not "get it". this phenomenal movie is a great way to get over your "subtitle" phobia..beyond all its wonderful film making..its a great film to watch...exciting..moving..it has heroes, villians...its a great "popcorn movie" too.
its the perfect intro to kurosawa films...possibly the worlds greatest film maker..and before you know it youll be passing by
the "new release section" and movies like "pearl harbor" straight to the "foreign classics section" for films like "andrei rublev"
Rating:
Summary: A concordance of modern film genres
Review: The Seven Samurai, is one of the most well known and best-loved films of the critically acclaimed director Akira Kurosawa. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, two British Academy Awards, and won the Venice film festival's Silver Lion. Kurosawa is arguably one of the most influential figures in cinema, inspiring Star Wars, The Dirty Dozen, A Fistful of Dollars, and innumerable Westerns. The Seven Samurai is one of Kurosawa's most accomplished films, and is also contains one of Toshiro Mifune's best screen performances. But these are reasons to write a film studies paper about The Seven Samurai. You should watch The Seven Samurai because it is one of the best action films of all time, while simultaneously an accomplishment of many other aspects of other modern film genres. The Seven Samurai is the original action movie, the original modern war movie, the original buddy film, the original martial arts movie. It's a coming of age story, a romance, and a comedy. It's the precursor of Saving Private Ryan and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It's Toshiro Mifune with a giant katana, hamming it up. While you could watch The Seven Samurai because its beautifully photographed, superbly paced, and engagingly written, you should come because its cool, moving, serious, and funny, all at the same time. And it has Toshiro Mifune with a giant katana.
Rating:
Summary: Take a second look at one of the greatest films ever made
Review: Akira Kurosawa made "Seven Samurai" because he wanted to make a real "jidai-geki," a real period-film that would present the past as meaningful, while also being an entertaining film. Kurosawa considered "Rashomon," the film rightfully credited with making the West aware of the Japanese cinema, with being neither. But in his attempt to make a truly "realistic" film, Kurosawa redefined the conflict at the heart of Japanese films. Before "Seven Samurai" this conflict was that of love versus duty, where the central character is compelled by fate to sacrifice what he loves in the name of duty. In "Seven Samurai" the focus remains on duty, yet the conflict is now between the real and the pretended. Calling yourself a samurai does not make you one, something proven time and time again in the film, from the test of skill turned deadly between Kyuzo (Seiji Miyaguchi) and the tall samurai to the first appearance of Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune), with his stolen pedigree. Like Katshushiro (Ko Kimura), the youngster who wants to learn from the master, Kambei (Takashi Shimura), the audience is educated as to the true nature of the samurai. For me this film deals with the heroic, albeit in realistic terms. I have shown the film in World Literature classes, after students have read Homer's "Iliad" and as they begin reading Cervantes' "Don Quixote." Within that context, compared to the brutal arrogance of Achilles and the gentle insanity of Quixote, the heroic qualities of the seven samurai become clear. Their inspiration extends to some of the villagers. Manzo (Kamatari Fujiwara) is crazed with fear over the virtue of his daughter, Shino (Keiko Tsushima), and Rikichi (Yoshio Tsuchiya) fights to avenge the disgrace of his wife and his precipitating the death of Heihachi (Minoru Chiaki), but it is the comic Yohei (Bokuzen Hidari), who finds within himself the ability to fight, a die a tragic death, who is the true barometer for what the samurai mean to the village. But the greatest tragedy is that despite this most noble effort and the bodies buried in honor at the top of the village cemetery, this has been but a temporary union between the villagers and the samurai. When Kambei declares, "We have lost again," he redefines the battles: it was not to kill all the bandits, it was to find a true place in the world. Yet we should have already known this, for the painful truth was driven home when Kyuzo, the master swordsman, is gunned down from behind. No better proof is needed in this film of the bitter truth that the world is not fair. Mifune is the maniacal spirit of this film, as the faux-samurai Kikuchiyo, the dancing whirlwind whose emotions overwhelm everything including himself. But is is Shimura as Kambei, who embodies the mentor mentality with a minimum of effort, evoking more by rubbing his hand over his shaved head or giving a single piercing look than by any spoken dialogue. Even in a strong ensemble these performances stand out, for clearly different reasons. To fully appreciate Kurosawa's mastery in "Seven Samurai" you need to watch the film several times to better appreciate the way he constructs scenes, using contrasting images, evocative music and varying the length of cuts to affect tempo. For example, look carefully at how the early scene of the farmers searching the streets for samurai and the later sequence where Katsushiro watches Kyuzo and Kikuchiyo waiting for the bandit scouts to return to their horses. Both of these scenes are superb primers to Kurosawa's style. For years we had to put with the 160-minute version of the film that was made for export, which was actually called "The Magnificent Seven" until John Strugis's Western remake. Fortunately, "Seven Samurai" has been restored to full 208-minute glory, saved from being a lamentable cinematic tragedy on a par with "Greed," "The Magnificent Ambersons," and "Ivan the Terrible." There is a sense in which "Seven Samurai" is truly my favorite film, because it was the one that instilled in me a love of cinema, of the craft and art of movie making, of compelling me to understand intellectually how Kurosawa was skillfully manipulating my emotions. The final battle sequences, fought and filmed in a torrent of rain, exhausting characters and audience alike with its increasingly relentless tempo, is given its potency because of the human elements that have been established in all that has taken place before hand. "Seven Samurai" is a magnificent film against which the vast majority of epics pale in comparison. Not even Kurosawa scaled these heights ever again.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the greatest film of all time
Review: I had always heard about Seven Samurai, and what a great movie it is. For whatever reason, I never saw it until recently. The only word to describe it would be "masterpiece." It works on so many different levels, and explores so many different themes, that the viewer becomes completely absorbed throughout it's 3 and a half hour run time. Director Akira Kurosawa has long been hailed as a genious, and here's the proof. It's hard to find any fault anywhere in this picture. It's absolutely perfect from it's groundbreaking cinematography, to the ensemble acting, to the the intense action sequences. I love the way Kurwosawa uses the elements like wind and rain to intensify the power of a scene.
The story itself is classic, and is the basic storyline of many American westerns, including "The Magnifficent Seven," which is a remake of this film. In 16th century Japan, a poor farming village besieged by bandits, hire seven samurai warriors to protect them. For merely a handful of rice a day, the seven men agree to help the villagers. We meet each samurai one by one, and learn of their personality traits and their various reasons for joining up. As the leader of a stellar cast is the legendary Toshiro Mifune, who plays Kikuchiyo, an orphaned peasant pretending to be a samurai as he searches for revenge.
Some viewers might shy away from the movie because of the subtitles. The themes this film deals with, like comedy, trajedy, and action are all themes that transcend the language barrior, and this movie should not be missed because of it. Every scene counts, every battle more spectacular than the last, and every performance is right on target.
The DVD is an exceptional restored version of the 1956 epic, with pretty good sound. Also features a pretty interesting commentary by film expert Michael Jeck. Don't miss this one!
Rating: 
Summary: DVD was a slight let-down
Review: I bought this DVD with the idea that The Criterion Collection produces very high quality DVDs. Though I understand this is an old film, I was very surprised to find that the quality of the print was inferior to the DVD of the same film published in the UK by the British Film Institute (available on amazon's UK site). The UK release was transferred from a new and seemingly flawless print of the film. Perhaps this Criterion edition was from an older print - at least there were regular artifacts all over the screen, and in most of the brighter shots, for example where a lot of sky is visible, the picture pulsates. This is a familiar sight to anyone who watches old movies, but I was surprised to find it on this DVD, especially considering the perfect picture of the BFI release, which is so good that it looks like the film was shot yesterday. I also found the commentary was a little bit of a let-down. I found there was too much only slightly interesting trivia, and not enough analysis. That being said, the commentary on the UK DVD was completely worthless. ...
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