Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, and he gathers six other samurai to join him.Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, and he gathers six other samurai to join him.Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, and he gathers six other samurai to join him.
- Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 5 wins & 9 nominations total
Toshirô Mifune
- Kikuchiyo
- (as Toshiro Mifune)
Yukiko Shimazaki
- Wife
- (as Yukio Shimazaki)
Isao Kimura
- Katsushiro
- (as Ko Kimura)
Kokuten Kôdô
- Old Man Gisaku
- (as Kuninori Todo)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAkira Kurosawa's original idea for the film was to make it about a day in the life of a samurai, beginning with him rising from bed, eat breakfast, go to his master's castle and ending with him making some mistake that required him to go home and kill himself to save face. Despite a good deal of research, he did not feel he had enough solid factual information to make the movie. He then pitched the idea of a film that would cover a series of five samurai battles, based on the lives of famous Japanese swordsmen. Hashimoto went off to write that script, but Kurosawa ultimately scrapped that idea as well, worrying that a film that was just "a series of climaxes" wouldn't work. Then, producer Sôjirô Motoki found, through historical research, that samurai in the "Warring States" period of Japanese history would often volunteer to stand guard at peasant villages overnight in exchange for food and lodging. Kurosawa then came across an anecdote about a village hiring samurai to protect them and decided to use that idea. Kurosawa wrote a complete dossier for each character with a speaking role. In it were details about what they wore, their favourite foods, their past history, their speaking habits, their reaction to battle and every other detail he could think of about them. No other Japanese director had ever done this before.
- GoofsIn the closing moments of the final battle, the bandits fire two musket shots only seconds apart. It is clear from the plot that at that point they possess only one musket. The black powder muskets of the age required much more time to reload. This error was pointed out in the commentary of the deluxe DVD edition.
- Quotes
Kambei Shimada: This is the nature of war: By protecting others, you save yourselves. If you only think of yourself, you'll only destroy yourself.
- Alternate versionsThe film's original Japanese release version runs 207 minutes, plus intermission, which includes four minutes of entr'acte music against a blank screen. This is the version that has been generally shown worldwide since the 1980s, though sometimes it is shown without the intermission and entr'acte, resulting in a listed running time of 203 minutes. The initial U.S.A. release was re-titled 'The Magnificent Seven' and released November 1956, with English subtitles, and ran 158 minutes. Some European releases were even further shortened to 141 minutes. Landmark Films re-released the film in the U.S. in December 1982, the first time outside Japan the film saw a major release with its running time intact (although the intermission and entr'acte were removed). Later U.S.A. releases by Avco-Embassy Pictures, Janus Films, and Films Incorporated, and by BFI in the UK, are also the full original version of the film.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Objective 500 Million (1966)
Featured review
I've been on a Toho binge for a while now and for the most part the films have been enjoyable, especially those by Kurosawa.
The earlier films were dark, bleak and unsettling viewing and therefore going into Seven Samurai I was of two minds. First I expected more of the same, in both quality and tone but then on the flipside at time of writing this is ranked as the 19th highest rated movie on IMDB which is incredible.
My expectations were that it would be good, but that's about it. Seeing Takashi Shimura in the credits also confirmed my logic that this was going to at least be an entertaining three and a half hours.
I was mistaken, Seven Samurai is not good............it's outstanding.
Wonderfully crafted, perfectly scored, incredibly choreographed, well acted and beautifully written this is well deserving of it's high place and I would consider it nothing short of a masterpiece.
If you check out my IMDB rating distribution it's very clear to see that getting anything higher than an eight is a rarity, this deserves it on so many levels.
I didn't expect this level of quality further as generally I don't tend to agree with titles in the IMDB top 250, this however I do I thoroughly unconditionally agree.
A masterpiece and essential viewing, I don't even need to give the premise of the movie in this review and must simply stress that this is film making mastery at its finest.
The Good:
Takashi Shimura
Very well shot for its time
Perfectly crafted
The Bad:
Nothing springs to mind
Things I Learnt From This Movie:
Akira Kurosawas should be a household name, not Bruckheimer or Bay!
I'll put money down now that none of the remakes or movies heavily influenced by Seven Samurai comes close in quality
The earlier films were dark, bleak and unsettling viewing and therefore going into Seven Samurai I was of two minds. First I expected more of the same, in both quality and tone but then on the flipside at time of writing this is ranked as the 19th highest rated movie on IMDB which is incredible.
My expectations were that it would be good, but that's about it. Seeing Takashi Shimura in the credits also confirmed my logic that this was going to at least be an entertaining three and a half hours.
I was mistaken, Seven Samurai is not good............it's outstanding.
Wonderfully crafted, perfectly scored, incredibly choreographed, well acted and beautifully written this is well deserving of it's high place and I would consider it nothing short of a masterpiece.
If you check out my IMDB rating distribution it's very clear to see that getting anything higher than an eight is a rarity, this deserves it on so many levels.
I didn't expect this level of quality further as generally I don't tend to agree with titles in the IMDB top 250, this however I do I thoroughly unconditionally agree.
A masterpiece and essential viewing, I don't even need to give the premise of the movie in this review and must simply stress that this is film making mastery at its finest.
The Good:
Takashi Shimura
Very well shot for its time
Perfectly crafted
The Bad:
Nothing springs to mind
Things I Learnt From This Movie:
Akira Kurosawas should be a household name, not Bruckheimer or Bay!
I'll put money down now that none of the remakes or movies heavily influenced by Seven Samurai comes close in quality
- Platypuschow
- Aug 16, 2018
- Permalink
Details
Box office
- Budget
- ¥125,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $820,278
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $15,942
- Jul 28, 2002
- Gross worldwide
- $1,072,088
- Runtime3 hours 27 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content