| Overall Grade: |
A- |
|
| Story: |
A |
|
|
| Acting: |
B+ |
|
|
| Direction: |
A- |
|
|
| Visuals: |
B |
|
|
Legendary Tale of Honor and Bravery
by Carlos (movies profile)
Aug 4, 2005
2
of
2 people found this review helpful
A group of bandits threaten to pillage a small, poor village of farmers. The farmers, unable to defend themselves, hire a group of samurai to help protect their village for a meager three rice meals a day. Sounds simple and straightforward but this movie is much deeper. There is a subplot that deals with the tension between the samurai and the farmers. The farmers hide their daughters and wives because they believe that the samurai will steal them away and ravage them. Then there is the greedy nature of the farmers towards the samurai. They hide things from the samurai to pay them less even though the samurai are kind and generous to the people. The characters are also fascinating and captivating. Each character has a different personality within the group and all of them are likable.
The battle scenes are handled extremely well and realistically. The samurai handle their battles in an intelligent and successful manner and their battle tactics are smarter than in most other films with battles.
The acting in the movie was very good. The lead samurai (Takashi Shimura) turns in the best performace of all. He is a commanding screen presence and a terrific leader. Another performace worthy mentioning is by Toshirô Mifune, who played Kikuchiyo. He is sometimes over the top but still a great and deep character.
The directing was excellent. The film, which is over three hours long, does a great job developing the characters and each is given enough screen time. Each subplot was done very well and the tension builds towards the epic and powerful battle scenes that were carefully and realistically crafted.
The Seven Samurai is an excellent film. The story is intriguing and profound. The character development is impressive and each character is likable. The acting was great and the directing was top notch. Highly Recommended. |
My Public Profile 
