Why is Seven Samurai a Great Film?

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Seven Samurai was directed by Akira Kurosawa, one of the greatest film directors who ever lived.

It is probably his most well-known film, and has been remade many times in different countries. What is so timeless about Seven Samurai to make it great?

I grade a film on four criteria. These are

1. Technical artistry
2. Storytelling artistry
3. Entertainment and
4. Art

A film must ace all four to be great. If you want to know the details of what makes a film read this:

Technical artistry

If you’ve heard of the phrase “every frame a painting”, Seven Samurai owns it.

It is said you can pause any frame of Seven Samurai and it could be a great photograph. The attention to detail in terms of camera composition, actor blocking and lighting is of a level few films have matched since. None have surpassed the effortless brilliance of Kurosawa’s camera choices.

He perfects the use of triangular blocking in Seven Samurai. You don’t feel there’s an inch of screen wasted, or where the director didn’t know what he wanted.

The seven samurai are introduced in an effortless fashion, without you even being aware of it. They enter the frame when you’re not looking, or appear as if they were already there. 

Then there’s the grandiose entrances that films copy to this day. Who can forget the epic duel that forms the basis of every Sergio Leone gunfight? 

The camera work goes further. The film employs deep focus in outdoor situations. The world is so rich and true there’s no need to blur out the backgrounds. You could explore it and revel in the actual village Kurosawa built for Seven Samurai. At the time, it was the most expensive film ever made in Japan.

Kurosawa typically used lenses of greater focal length than the norm. For Seven Samurai, he stuck mostly to 35mm and 50mm lenses on an Academy frame, probably Bausch and Lomb Baltar lenses. Anybody who has shot anything for a while will know how hard it is to  maintain deep focus as you go towards the telephoto end.

The compositions are flat-like, but full of depth. The depth is achieved through clever actor placement and lighting. The lighting on Seven Samurai is a masterclass of great lighting. I’ve made a separate video on lighting this scene that I call the No Samurai scene. Check it out (only for members):

What seems like a simple scene is actually extremely hard to pull off.

Then there’s Kurosawa’s use of multiple cameras, which was pioneering. Today, David Fincher uses multiple cameras all the time, most filmmakers do, for a variety of reasons. Kurosawa used it because the battle scenes in Seven Samurai couldn’t be repeated precisely enough to allow smooth editing. However, he was so impressed with the utility of multiple cameras he almost always used it afterwards.

It’s extremely hard to compose for multiple cameras. Kurosawa had one trick. He asked the second camera operator to film whatever he wanted, and Kurosawa would only look at the footage if he required it in editing. Otherwise he stuck to his main camera, of which he had full control.

The camera movement in Seven Samurai isn’t very complicated, because it was almost impossible to free the camera when so many lighting and camera restrictions were in place. The technology in the 1950s wasn’t all that advanced either. However, Kurosawa made up for camera movement with actor blocking. In a famous example Kambei draws his bow in sync with the rest in the background, while it rains.

It goes without saying Seven Samurai was an arduous and chaotic shoot, and Akira Kurosawa was in total control from beginning to end.

Storytelling artistry

The acting in Seven Samurai is world class. There are critics who disagree, but I find the characters and actors consistent with the world Kurosawa has built. Everything feels real, like you’re watching a thrilling documentary unfold before your very eyes.

This film propelled Toshiro Mifune to superstardom. His acting is easily the standout, and for good reason. He was already a star. For me, though, the standout actor has to be Takashi Shimura. If his Kambei hadn’t worked, the film would have fallen flat. Shimura has total mastery over his physical presence. Watch Ikiru or Rashomon, and it would be hard to imagine that man as a leader.

This goes for every character in Seven Samurai, each one fitting seamlessly into their roles. You have to remember all actors had to do multiple retakes until Kurosawa was satisfied. If that wasn’t hard enough, they also had to hit their marks perfectly, because compositionally Kurawasa was relentlessly demanding. They had to battle rain, sun and long days of shooting. This kind of commitment to a film is very rare, but the results are for all to see.

Let’s talk about editing. In the Hollywood system a scene is shot from many different angles so the editor has greater artistic freedom in the edit. Not for Kurosawa.

Kurosawa’s editing decisions were predetermined in the script. His shots were carefully planned based on storyboards and paintings he made. There was hardly any room for creative editing, which made the job more functional. The only exception was when Kurosawa found he needed to use footage from the second camera to drive home a point he forgot to film with the first.

There are certain editing innovations and flourishes in Seven Samurai. The Kurosawa wipe is well known, and has inspired Star Wars. But the editing goes further.

Seven Samurai is one of the pioneers that have a sequence of shots showing what’s going to happen before it does. When the action hits, we understand where everyone is in relation to the story. This technique has been utilized many times since, the most famous being the sinking animation in Titanic before the actual thing happens on screen.

The sets and costumes were all custom built for the Sengoku period the film is set in, which was between 1467 to 1615. This was the end of the samurai era, a period of many civil wars, chaos and social upheavals. Sort of like the wild West.

Entertainment

Films are made for someone to watch, at least Seven Samurai was. It was the second-highest grossing film in Japan in 1954, and saved Kurosawa’s career because it took a year to shoot and went over budget.

Seven Samurai doesn’t have a dull moment from the first shots of Samurai silhouetted against a sky coming over the hill to the end when peace returns. In fact, it’s thrilling because there are some breathtaking action scenes towards the end when the final assault begins.

In many ways it’s more like a Hollywood film, similar to Stagecoach than Rashomon. This was used as a criticism of Kurosawa by some and a compliment by others. But there’s no denying Seven Samurai was a great hit and this is why it has been remade and its story copied in myriad forms.

Art

The most difficult aspect of a film to grade is art. I ask a simple question: Does a film gain in value over time?

The fact that many people have tried to remake Seven Samurai but none have come close to its brilliance shows its value in tangible terms. Sadly, the original negatives of Seven Samurai have been lost and Toho has made a 4K restored version. If the negatives are made available we can learn the true market value of Seven Samurai.

Who knows? One day original film negatives might sell like art (if they survive).

I also ask another important question with any film: Can you watch it again and again without getting bored?

I’ve watched Seven Samurai a hundred times, and each time I learn something new. That’s the value of art, I guess. At least it’s to me. I’m always in awe of the perfect marriage between visuals and story – the effortless transition of scenes, the real world-like mise-en-scenes, and the liberating and heroic story of good vs evil against impossible odds.

This is why Seven Samurai is a great film.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s the greatest film. Which is why it’s at number one on my 100 films to see before you die list: