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DILLON ON FILM
Seven Samurai: 70 Years On
Akira Kurosawa’s influential masterpiece is still a cinematic force to be reckoned with
Recently, there’s been much huffing and puffing about the length of films in cinemas, and whether there’s a need to reinstate an intermission for longer works. At a bladder-bursting 208 minutes, Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 classic Seven Samurai had such an intermission. It was present in the recent BFI rerelease, and it’s also present on DVD and Blu-Ray copies. Therefore, however you watch this — and watch it you most certainly should — there’s a built-in comfort break, and consequently no need for complaint about long running times.
Seven Samurai is both an influential masterpiece and an ideal entry point for those unfamiliar with the works of the legendary Japanese director. Other Kurosawa films are equally hallowed by critics - meditation on objective truth Rashomon (1950) and King Lear reimagining Ran (1985) particularly leap to mind - but for me, Seven Samurai is the best cinematic baptism into Kurosawa’s spectacular visions. It’s also one of the most thoroughly entertaining of his works; an additional recommendation beyond the seven decades of critical acclaim.
All that said, Kurosawa was often more revered outside his own country than within. The…
