Where have all the good guys gone?

Seven Samurai (1954)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa

This is perhaps the most famous foreign films of all time in America. As the title suggests, it follows seven samurai (one who only wishes he were so) who decide to defend a village against a band of pillagers. A simple plot that Kurosawa managed to tell over the span of 3 and a half hours. I have never had a problem with long movies purely because they are long. I watched Sergio Leone's movie a few weeks ago that was just as long, and I loved it. This film was a different story, and for one reason.

I have a confession to make, one that feels like a crime among fans of classic films: I don't really care for Akira Kurosawa's films. I know he's supposed to be a genius, one of the greatest directors of all time, but I find his movies tedious, and a bit boring. I do not deny his skills purely as a director. His use of a camera to tell a story was remarkable. What I don't like is how he seemed to think that movie audiences are morons, something that will turn me off a movie faster than anything else. Films that take the point of view that a point can only be made by slamming it into the viewer's mind over and over again bore me. I will admit that I am not sure whether this style of using a sledgehammer to drive a point home was unique to him or was just a characteristic of Japanese film-making of that era. I watched the 1964 horror film Onibaba several months back, and it was even worse.

My complaints aside, there is much about this film to be admired. One of the highlights is the acting, and leading the way is Takashi Shimura, a legend in Japanese film history. As far as I am concerned, he is the real draw of this movie. One of the main reasons the film is so long is that the entire first hour is used solely for the establishment of all the characters. I found most of the samurai to be fascinating, though there were two that seemed fairly interchangeable; I had a tough time telling them apart. Shimura plays the leader of the samurai, and he shines in every scene. He emotes a quiet dignity, even through his moments of shame and doubt, which I found a joy to watch. An amusing side note - he bears a slight resemblance to Yul Brynner (though much smaller), who played the same character in the American remake, The Magnificent Seven. My husband and I realized this at nearly the exact same moment.

There is a fair amount of action in this movie, the last hour is mostly dedicated to the siege of the village, and here is where Kurosawa's skills really shine. For a film made in the 1950s the siege is remarkably intense, and the movie seemed to fly by in the last 45 minutes. The editing of the last hour is noticeably different from the rest of the movie, adding to the increase in pacing, and the camera is far less static, which leads to a lot of excitement in how everything plays out. I can't wait to find out if his film Hidden Fortress is the same.

The way the story unfolds, as I already mentioned, is tedious in its execution due to the script's complete lack of subtlety. But, I did appreciate that the film maker made the decision to have the characters fully realized; there are very few two-dimensional people in this movie. Proving my preconceptions of a 1950s movie wrong, this movie isn't really about good guys and bad guys. In fact, the movie barely gives any time to the pillagers; there is more than enough personal conflict among the so-called good guys. Though I expected the outcome of the ending, it was still interesting experiencing the tone of a film that does not go for a typical happy ending. This made the payoff all the more interesting. So, even though the point of the story was so very obvious within the first 90 minutes, watching the execution of it through interesting characters play out over the 120 past that was bearable. Overall, I am glad I saw this movie. It features some of the best direction I've ever seen, and anyone who loves movies should definitely see it. But I never want to see it again.