SHICHININ NO SAMURAI (1954, The Seven Samurai ) *** Akira Kurosawa draws little attention to himself, allowing his film to tell a simple story in a natural way. The deception is in the humble simplicity, all of a sudden you realize that you've gained valuable insights into the difference between herd mentality and team mentality, young love and the old farts who try to get in the way (or was that one how passive failure can destroy anything), the inherent cowardice of firearms as a means by which to fight, the glory and limitations of individual acts of courage in battle, and humanitarian sympathies so powerful as to allow even the Samurai to gaze upon the terrified and ignorant masses without contempt. So, all that stuff you heard about Kurosawa and cowboy movies isn't even tertiary. Yeah, it's there, of course-it's easy enough to look at the big faces that linger on the screen and think how it must have affected Sergio Leone, or watch a Samurai bite the dust in slow-motion and think of Sam Peckinpah's eyes popping out, but if you're thinking much about that stuff while you're watching the film I think you're distracted and missing out. Toshiro Mifune gets all of the attention, and he's indeed a glorious manifestation of rugged invidualism in mirrored eclipse amid clown-like posturing, but I think we notice him because he's most accessible to the Western world. Ponder Seiji Miyaguchi's character, as Kurosawa does, or Takashi Shimura, with an eye towards the virtues (including the potentialities of sneak attack) of humility, and the possibility that the natural state of the soul is a passive one (that's "One must have quiesence in one's soul to give birth to the dancing star," for Nietzsche fans). I know that what you really want to know is whether these guys could take Charles Bronson and Steve McQueen, and those other guys from The Magnificent Seven. I don't know, man, I mean, Samurai swords wouldn't seem to match up well against Winchester's, but also that true warriors tend to find a way.
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