Shichinin no samurai review

Seven Samurai (schichinin no samurai)

Movie review by zulfi

            What makes a foreign film to be a success to an international audience? ‘Schichinin no samurai’ is one of the first foreign movies I had seen when I was a kid. It is easily one of the best movies in the great master, Akira Kurosawa’s tenure as filmmaker. There was always something appealing about the work every time I viewed it. The movie in fact had many points which go in favor of it. Like the technical work, wonderful performances, great casting, excellent background score and a load more things. But when I watched other Kurosawa’s movies, the subconscious thing which struck with me and which Kurosawa maintained in his every work was the respect for nativity he gave. Kurosawa claimed John Ford as his inspiration for his movies, but I could say Kurosawa was the master. Though he learned technical points from western cinema, he never westernized his even modern movies. He remained faithful to the feudal Japan if he made Samurai movies and he showcased modern Japan in his current era (1950s) work. You could see in his depiction of the village, in his down to earth farmers, downtrodden peasants, naked beggars, tenacious swordsmen, the inclination he had towards the nativity. He flourished in picturising the sodden agricultural lands, natural sounding rains, foggy fields and the list goes on. With the clinical approach he took and the ultra professionalism he maintained he gave us the view of the past world and surely resounding nostalgia for his people.

            ‘Schichinin no Samurai’ is probably one of the most remade films of yesteryears. In Bollywood, it resounded as ‘Sholay’ twenty five years later. Hollywood made it as ‘magnificent seven’, which was a sub-par movie compared with the original. The latter movie lacked heart. Kurosawa never shied away showing the way peasants and beggars fought for a bowl of rice. The rest of the world cinema couldn’t dare being so professional and real. These inspired movies later spawned many more. But none could achieve the magic of Kurosawa’s work.

            Kurosawa had many tiffs with the producers and he also made life hell for his cast and crew with the accuracy he strived for. There were some locations in the sets, which he had to burn and he redid the set three times to burn it all over again three times. One could only gasp at his professionalism.

            Set in feudal Japan, the movie begins when a village is raided by bandits and they keep the promise that they will be back to loot it again in the next harvest season. The farmers and the villagers get scared by this predicament and approach the village head to solve this issue. The blind-as-bat dotard advises on a hothead’s talk of frustration that probably hiring Samurai isn’t a bad option. The villagers though unsure at first agree to it and they go to the local town. When they see an old samurai and his wits during the handling of a certain ‘situation’, they plead him to come with them and save them from the bandits. The genial samurai reluctantly at first agrees but hires another six forming a team to be the guards of the village.

            Kurosawa doesn’t think the job is finished by just letting the heroes fight with the fellows and settle the scores. What he does more is in the way he develops the human-human interaction between the peasants and the warriors. He tells both the pros and cons of both these genera of medieval Japan. He creates an atmosphere of farmers’ happiness at the arm of support they have and gently drags us into it as we too feel bold against the impending attack. There are tales of bravery, consideration of old generation for its young, sacrifices any man do and many other preachings.

            Kurosawa had outlined the seven warriors with their biographies and their habits and every detail of their life to explain the cast and give the film more spirit. He even worked on the villagers, who were more than a hundred on the same lines. This approach was later adopted by Hollywood and the world cinema. He used multiple cameras for action sequences so as not to get continuity problems. He even extensively studied about the art of war and employed the steps in the bandits’ attack on the village.

            His cast, which included his two most favorite and whom he went on to employ in his many movies were Takashi Shimura (wise captain Samurai) and Toshiro Mifune (Kikuchiyo). Toshiro Mifune gave one of his best performances of his life in this movie. The way he creates laughs and cries could be an example of why his resume was so solid. He later starred as Yojimbo and also as the red beard, which later went onto become very popular. But his stellar performance was from ‘Roshomon’. Unlike Kurosawa and Shimura, he didn’t have the Samurai roots, but looking at his flimography over the years, we could see he was an inherent Samurai warrior with the exceptional personality and with the fearsome screen presence.

            ‘Schichinin no Samurai’ could be taken as a lesson for the present and future generations of filmmakers for not only about the art of filmmaking but also for ethics involved with it. Kurosawa never failed to raise the human issues while he made his movies. The final scene in the movie could be considered the most poignant picture of emotion, which makes us sigh with sadness and pity for the clan of warriors, who became extinct down the feudal age of japan. It was said that some samurai even resorted to becoming bandits for making their ends meet. Then we would have seen the final shot in another angle. Kurosawa made humanity his centerpiece in the way he delved into the story and in the ethical way he worked. He even credited Satyajit Ray as one of the best filmmakers of the world and also influential. Most of India doesn’t know this fact. If they would have been aware of the great auteur we had, we could have looked into the great man’s works and our mainstream cinema would have been completely different. But it is just a ‘coulda’, ‘shoulda’ guess.

            Kurosawa made a masterpiece as he did many. Only lauding one of his movies is an insult to his memory. I always felt that he gained because his movies were black and white and had some authenticity to them. But when I saw his movies with colour, I was flabbergasted. None knew how to create imagery with colors than him. The man lived for his movies and his art, Hats off.