Rating: 
Summary: Legendary Film, Early DVD
Review: To get this out of the way right now, "Seven Samurai", as a film, is a 5-star picture. Provided the audience has an inkling of what they're getting into, this movie can be easily considered one of Akira Kurosawa's best efforts. The expert directing, multi-layered story, and mounds of social commentary make for a film that sits up there with "Citizen Kane" at the top of many critic's "top 10" lists. It's a truly outstanding film, and one that holds up to many repeat viewings and careful analysis.As an aside, this movie will be quite lost on those raised on modern-day Hollywood films. Anyone going into it expecting a shallow, sword-swinging thrill ride will come away confused (and probably angry) at the "slow" pace, the three-hour runtime, the subtitles, the fact that it's in black and white, the fact that it's not particularly violent, the fact that they talk so much, etc. etc. ad nauseam. I'd figure this would go without saying, but there it is again, just in case: If your idea of a fantastic movie is "The Fast and the Furious", run away right now; what you're looking at now is the movie version of Kryptonite. Assuming the audience has some depth perception, this becomes THE film to own, and should be a cornerstone in any great DVD collection. Fans will recognize the label of the famous Criterion Collection displayed proudly across the disc case, and under normal circumstances that's indicative of a DVD packed to the gills with extras for the real film fan. The only issue with this disc (and hence the 4-star rating) is that the DVD is VERY slight on the extras, essentially giving you the film and that's it. Normally, this wouldn't be worth docking a point, given that this is both a very early DVD, and also given that this is the only place to get the genuine, 3+ hour Japanese version of the film. When it was picked up by RKO for it's first U.S. release decades ago, the film had been greatly reduced in length, and there have been various other cuts throughout the years. This version is easily the most complete, and that alone is quite substantial. In all honesty, it's BECAUSE of the importance of the film that I feel like I got a little cheated with this disc. Were this a film of any lower calibur, I think I'd be fine, but this is SEVEN-FREAKING-SAMURAI we're talking about! If you're a Kurosawa fan, you really, really want to get as much as possible out of this film. As it stands, a real fan is forced to go to external sources on the film (not hard to find) to get all the juicy extra information that compliments it, which really isn't so bad, but the thought of what could have been had this film been released a year or two later on DVD makes me winsome. What's crucial to point out, however, is that this shortcoming is really in no way the fault of Criterion, who have always had the utmost respect for the films they produce. It's much more a time factor: This is disc #2 in the collection (they're well beyond #200 by this point) and at the time, the special editions as we know them did not exist. Packing the entire film onto a single disc was a feat in and of itself, and taking into account where the technology was at the time, this really is the best the fans could have hoped for: Seven Samurai, uncut, looking and sounding as good as it was ever going to. So, think of the 4-star rating as a time-adjusted thing. This movie is still required, but know what you're getting so there's no dissapointment. And Kurosawa fans, take heart: Criterion's putting out a fantastic-looking version of "Ikiru", which is arguably the best Kurosawa film ever, and they're bringing all the fans' expecations to bear. It looks like it's going to be perfect. In the meantime, Seven Samurai is a no-brainer for any film fan. It's an honest-to-God classic, and one of the best films ever made.
Rating: 
Summary: JerrysOpine
Review: I felt compelled to check out what kind of people would rate this superb piece of art with anything less than 5 stars. This is what I found; One reviewer gave it a 5 star review , but only 4 stars.....high standards I guess. Another 4 star reviewer ought to learn how to compose a sentence, before criticizing others. One guy gave it a star and remarked that "it didn't make sense". Please don't hire this guy for flight traffic control. I wonder if he knows they were speaking Japanese. Then we have a reviewer who states; "it shows it's age". Isn't that amazing, it's set in the 17th century.
One reviewer dropped a star for remastering quality, not film quality. The 2 star reviewer had trouble constructing grammatically correct sentences. I didn't go any farther than Michael with the defective DVD. He gave it 1 star and asked advice from the "review board help desk". Well..........no, I'm not even going there. But in lieu of insulting Michael, I'm going to watch this excellent movie tomorrow.... again.
Rating:
Summary: A good movie
Review: I saw this Kurosawa's famous movie "Seven samurai." Honestly, I thought this movie was good but not great. The story is good and entertaining, but it's little slow and sometimes I really can't hear what the actors say, especially Mihune. The acting wasn't that good. And this movie is just old now, or my expectation was too much for it. If someone asks me if I enjoyed this movie, I'll say "Yes." No doubt! I give 3 stars to this movie and 1 extra star to the name of Kurosawa, I think it'll explain a lot about what I want to say about this and all Kurosawa's movies. Maybe, Kurosawa's name adds some power to ordinary movies. I'll just rent his movies, but I won't buy them.
Rating:
Summary: ATTENTION AMAZON.COM EDITORS!!!
Review: Would you PLEASE go through the lowest-rated reviews and delete the two reviews by the nitwits who complain that "Seven Samurai" isn't letterboxed? The film was shot in the 4:3 (square) aspect ratio, NOT WIDESCREEN, and therefore should not be letterboxed.
Rating:
Summary: All time greats
Review: one of the greatest and most influencial movies of all time. a classic in every aspect of the sense. should be watched by anyone who considers themselves a movie fan, truely a masterpiece. for the time (1954) truely a groundbreaking and epic film.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest movies ever.
Review: I now understand why Akira Kurosawa is one of the greatest directors of all time. He has made truly one of the greatest movies ever made, The Seven Samurai. For those of you who don't know what the movie's about, it takes place in 16th century Japan. Around that time, bandits were raiding villages and taking farmers' crops and just wreaking havoc. One of the villages does not want to go down like that. So, the elder of the village, Gisaku (played by Kuninori Kudo, who does a great job), decides to hire 4 samurai to save the village. He compromises later with a villager and gets seven. The movie has a great epic feel to it, and has some of the best acting ever. My favorite, and I'm sure a lot of people who's seen this probably agree with me, actor was Isao Kimura, who played the adventurous Katsushiro. His speech about farmers was one of the best speeches in a movie I've seen in a while. (Next to Robert DeNiro's angry speech in Mean Streets.) Takashi Shimura was also perfect in his role as the samurai posing as a monk. This is the completed version of the movie, which should be the ONLY way to watch this. Yes, it's very long, but it helps the story, and unlike some movies now that add extra footage that hurts the movie (Apacolypse Now, The Exorcist), this really REALLY helps the movie. It's a classic tale, a lot like Shakespeare. Though I don't think this is the greatest movie of all time (that would be Scorsese's Mean Streets.), it's in my top 5. GO SEE IT NOW!
Rating:
Summary: A film-making legacy and a masterpiece of storytelling
Review: In 16th century Japan a poor village is raided each year by a group of bandits. One year, on the brink of starvation, the villagers decide to hire ronin (masterless samurai) to protect them. With only meagre payment of 3 meals a day, their quest seems an impossible one. I`d heard so much from many friends about this being one of the greatest movies ever made - and in my opinion thats` not far wrong. Initially I was apprehensive, not because of the subtitles (I`m not a stranger to them, being a fan of foreign cinema) but because it was such a long film (over 3 hours), and I wasn`t sure about its` pacing for example since the basic plot of the film is a very simple one. Though I had seen a Kurosawa film before (Rashomon - 1950) many consider Seven Samurai to be his masterpiece, which I was a newcomer to. I needn`t have worried about anything. Its` a very important film in World cinema - and its` got everything in it - drama, memorable characters, comedy, pathos, action and raw emotion. You really care about the characters in this film and what happens to them.
The climactic battle with the bandits and samurai, fought in splattering mud and pouring rain for example, is brilliantly done, and Kurosawa doesn`t flinch at showing us the violence and horror that occurs. The impact he had on cinema cannot be underestimated - many techniques, such as the use of slow motion to increase the impact of an action scene (which would later be implemented by HK maestros Chang Cheh and John Woo) were being seen on screen here for the very first time. It may be difficult to imagine how revolutionary that was for the audience.
The plot may be simplistic, but in the hands of a master film-maker, this really isn`t a problem as you`re always absorbed in these character`s lives.
Toshiro Mifune (who would appear in a lot of Kurosawa`s features) is excellent as Kikuchiyo, the farmers` son is also an aspiring samurai. He is a crazy and wild character. The great scene in which he makes a blistering speech berating both the samurai for being evil and the farmers for being greedy is not without irony, first since he is clad in full samurai garb and second because the things he hits out at when accusing the samurai (killing people, raping women, stealing crops, burning houses) were being carried out a mere ten years before by the Japanese military in the Second World War. Also, up until that point in the film he had been nothing but a clown, which makes the turn all the more powerful.
Kurosawa also debunks the myth of the classic samurai hero, usually painted as fearless and invincible. In a scene where two samurai are talking one asks the other what he does in the face of danger. `I lie low in a ditch` he replies. `Then I run away` Its` a mark of how good this film is that even today things are being drawn from it - most famously of course remade as the Western The Magnificent Seven (1960) by John Sturges, but even Disney have to thank him, as their 1998 computer animated comedy A Bug`s Life is based on Kurosawa`s film. I`m ever so pleased I saw this - if you`re a fan of World cinema (heck, just cinema in general) you really must see it. Don`t be hesitant by its` long runtime, subtitles or its full frame ratio. Its` a marvellous film.
Trust me on this. This DVD from the Criterion Collection features the rarely seen original US Theatrical Trailer for Seven Samurai, plus a full length commentary (something lacking in the BFI Region 2 release) by Japanese film expert Michael Jeck. I`ll admit I haven`t heard all of that yet, though what I`ve heard so far is very interesting!
This version is the fully restored cut of the film (206 minutes) which includes a short intermission and has been transferred from a new 35mm composite low contrast print. Considering the age of the film, I was impressed with how it looked, though certain shots looked really fuzzy and were like watching through mist (probably due to the age/condition of the materials though).
Rating:
Summary: Tremendous personal drama
Review: Looking through the many reviews, and looking at the one star efforts, I was amazed at the reasons given for being a bad film. A cheap Hong Kong effort, a rip off of The Magnificent Seven, a bad Hong Kong flick....I reckon that some of the reviewers weren't paying attention or never saw Seven Samurai. This is one of those rare films where the more you see it, the more you get out of it. It is drawn out and ponderous at times, but that adds to it's realism. The photography is brilliant in wonderful black and white. Kurosawa is at his peak in a story that explores the hearts of men, and obtains memorable performances from his Toho acting corps. Takashi Shimura stands head and shoulders above all others in what is, apart from Ikiru, his finest film portrayal. Mifune may seem too over the top, but when you consider his characters background, it is a magnificent effort. The scene where he and the farmers burst into the room with armor and weapons taken from murdered Samurai tells plenty about the character of Kikuchiyo. Most of the performances from the large cast are memorable, and there is even the first screen appearance of Tatsuya Nakadai as the second Samurai walking through the town. This is not an action film, although there is the 3 days of fighting with the bandits, but more of a human adventure with little reward and great personal sacrifice. A true classic that for me ends too soon!
Rating:
Summary: One of the top ten best films -EVER.
Review: Not only one of the best Samurai films, but one of the most perfectly made films ever! The story is well made, the realistic characters are played by powerful actors (one of them being Toshiro Mifune), with lots of drama, humor, philosohpy AND all in 207 minutes! What more could you ask for? Oh, don't forget the ACTION!
The DVD, of course, also has extras, like audio commentary and the original US theatrical trailer.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful war story, a great comedy, a coming-of-age story
Review: A rag-tag band of villagers set out to the nearest city to get samurais to help their village win a war against forty bandits. Will the samurais assemble a team, with Mifune in tow ? Will they become friends along the way ? Will they become an effective fighting team ? Will there be problems and conflicts ? Will they achieve some kind of understanding about the peasants ? Well, of course. But Kurosawa's talent changes this premise into a beautiful war story, a great comedy, a coming-of-age story... incredible. It is slow to start, and clocks in at 200 minutes, but after the band of samurais is recruited the plot swiftly kicks in. The cinematography here is great, and group shots are composed with typical Kurosawa precision. There is a wonderful scene at the beginning where samurai Kambei, leader of men, shaves his head and assumes priestly rags in order to rescue a baby held at sword-point, as it is, and is reminiscent of action movies where the hero is shown doing a heroic deed, although the action here is much more meaningful. Mifune, the biggest character and a favourite actor of Kurosawa who plays boisterous, almost animalistic characters, carries almost all the humour. He is in top-form, and with his five-feet long sword and over-expressive body movements is the very image of comedic bravado. In his second appearance, he has an utterly believable drunk scene. He's always something to watch, that Mifune guy. Also, the arrows are real and shot in wooden planks on actors' bodies, which I find absolutely unbelievable. Heihachi Hayashida : Yeah, yeah. But I'm better at killing enemies.
Gorobei Katayama : Killed many?
Heihachi Hayashida : Well - It's impossible to kill 'em all, so I usually run away.
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