|
Post by klep on Aug 3, 2015 6:37:20 GMT -6
In 1954 Toho released Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, and it only took 61 years for it to become our Movie of the Week! A sprawling - yet intimate - film about a group of samurai recruited to save a farming village from bandits, Kurosawa's masterpiece would prove to define both its own genre as well as the American Westerns that would follow it. Seven Samurai is not only a fantastically entertaining film full of great action and plenty of humor, it also serves as an examination of class and social structure near the end of the Sengoku period and in particular as a way to pierce the romantic notions many people had (and still have) of the Samurai. But what do you think? This thread will serve as the main post, but I believe a number of our fellows have written articles about the film and I'll make sure those end up with posts as well.
|
|
|
Post by seankgallagher on Aug 3, 2015 7:19:29 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by klep on Aug 3, 2015 11:54:30 GMT -6
Mifune's character really is the heart and soul of the film. He's always the one to turn to when you're trying to figure out what Kurosawa is saying.
|
|
|
Post by sonofgriff on Aug 3, 2015 13:38:30 GMT -6
Random thoughts on the greatness of this film
1)Beautiful blocking, in which the main part of the action is clearly established for the viewer, but in which other characters who are to be affected by their actions are established in the background or negative space.
2) Beautiful establishment of character through the physical way that they move or comport themselves on screen.
3) Fantastic use of sound to convey the essential emotion of the scene.
In short everyone should study this movie in film school.
|
|
|
Post by klep on Aug 3, 2015 13:50:21 GMT -6
Kurosawa's blocking is always excellent, although I think overall that High and Low is where his mastery of it is best seen. The end of the scene where the tryst between Katsushiro and Shino is discovered is devastating, and its impact is hugely owed to how and where those two characters are posed. Katsushiro in particular never says a word, and he never has to. He just has to stand there, and we see both his deep shame and the conflict between propriety and his confused feelings about Shino.
|
|
|
Post by Erik on Aug 3, 2015 18:08:47 GMT -6
I was going to write a longer piece about this movie, but I didn't get a chance to rewatch, and I was caught up in some other stuff, but I absolutely love it. It sort of serves a similar role in samurai film as The Searchers did for westerns, in that it embraces both the romance and the loneliness of the samurai life. Many people have reservations about it because it seems to reinforce elitism, since the villagers feel the need to hire samurai rather than fight for themselves, but that seems to miss the thematic purpose of Kikuchiyo, as well as the ending of the movie, which is a pretty fierce condemnation of the class system. The movie is amazing entertainment, but I think the note of melancholy it ends on really elevates it.
|
|
|
Post by glorbes on Aug 4, 2015 8:40:43 GMT -6
Why Yohei?
Seven Samurai is a sprawling epic of a film that tells an small-scale story through its characters. You have the basic plot (samurai agree to protect village from bandits for food and lodging), but what fills out the film is character work. You have the Samurai themselves, who all have wonderful and varying personalities (Kikuchiyo most of all), and you have the Villagers, who start the story rolling and are among the first people we meet. So why Am I so nuts about Yohei? In a way, Yohei represents what makes the whole film so amazing. His character could possibly be excised without impacting the overall story, but it is his character, revealed through Bokuzen Hidari's quiet performance, that provides a sampling of my favourite moments. When he cowers behind the post each time Katsushiro holds up the stick to test potential Samurai, my heart warms and I laugh every time. When Kikuchiyo picks on him for how he holds his spear, or makes cracks at his expense (especially regarding the integrity of his underwear), they endear me to Yohei and provide Mifune with wonderful comedic opportunities. Yohei is fragile, cowardly, and kind of pathetic, but he is also brave and committed when it is required, and his loyalty costs him his life but helps defend the village. I swear when he gets skewered before the final stretch of the battle, it serves as a reminder of the cost and risk of war, and is also a shocking and devastating example of what Kikuchiyo's glory hunting allows to happen. After that moment, he goes from being a childish fool to a samurai, thus transforming the clown into a heroic and ultimately tragic figure. None of this has to do with plot machination, and everything to do with how deftly Kurosawa and his fellow screenwriters constructed the character work throughout the film. If you care about such a minor character like Yohei as much as you care about Kambei or Kyuzo, then you know that you're in the hands of a master storyteller.
|
|