SEVEN SAMURAI — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon. Thanks a lot pal! Your generosity keeps the reviews coming!

Akira Kurosawa introduced Samurai to the Western world in 1954 with his epic Japanese 16th century period film about a group of Samurai hired by farmers to defend a peasant village overrun by bandits.

“Seven Samurai” has served as a template for such popular American westerns as “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Wild Bunch,” and “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.”

Toshiro Mifune is in top form as a rowdy Samurai exhibitionist still in command of the ideals and values of his quickly disappearing noble class.

The original "assemble-the-team” movie (think “Reservoir Dogs”) operates on several social and historical levels that give it a timeless quality.

Kurosawa's intention of making his first period film "entertaining enough to eat" is brought to that palpable condition through Mifune's endlessly watchable peasant warrior.

This is Cinema!