Seven Samurai (1954)

Often hailed as one of the greatest films of all time, Seven Samurai (七人の侍, Shichinin no Samurai) is writer and director Akira Kurosawa’s tale of a village aimed to defend themselves from marauding bandits. Based on an account from the Edo period of samurai defending a farming village from bandits, Seven Samurai takes place in a mountain village of farmers in the year 1586. When farmers overhear a gang planning to raid their village once their crops are ready, they take the matter to the village elder, Gisaku, who suggests hiring samurai who will take food as payment. Thus begins their quest to find seven samurai who can protect their village.

Seven Samurai was co-written by Shinobu Hashimoto and Hideo Oguni and stars Toshiro Mifune (also known for Yojimbo and Throne of Blood) as the wild samurai Kikuchiyo, Takashi Shimura as the experienced rōnin samurai Kambei, and Keiko Tsushima who plays a farmer’s daughter named Shino who develops a relationship with one of the samurai, Katsushirō. Once the seven samurai are established, the story grows to a dramatic climax before the final denouement.

Seven Samurai has been very highly acclaimed by reviewers and an inspiration for numerous filmmakers since its inception. The Magnificent Seven was a western remake of the movie, a film which then inspired Ocean’s Eleven and The Dirty Dozen. Filmmakers who have named Seven Samurai as a favorite film include Andrei Tarkovsky, Martin Scorsese, Denis Villeneuve, and George Lucas, who stated that of Kurosawa’s films, “my favorite of all time is really Seven Samurai.” This influential, visually stunning, and groundbreaking film is not to be missed.