Seven Samurai 4K Review (2024)

What else is there to say about a movie like Seven Samurai? Inarguably one of the greatest and most influential action films of all time, it’s been written about, borrowed from and remade outright over and over again ever since its first release in 1954. But when something is this much of a classic and has been canonised to this extent, what often gets forgotten about is just what a blast it is to watch, and Akira Kurosawa‘s masterpiece is, above all else, magnificent entertainment.

In 1500s Japan, a group of bandits persistently raids a poor village of farmers to steal their rice. Unable to fight back on their own, the villagers decide to hire ronin – masterless samurai who need food and a place to stay – to protect them. They first find Kambei, an old warrior who’s willing to help them, and he sets out to recruit six more samurai before bringing them back to the village and preparing the defences.

We could talk endlessly about how influential it is, even to today’s blockbusters: how the Battle of Helm’s Deep cribs liberally from its breathtaking, rain-drenched finale; how The Avengers casts Nick Fury in the Kambei role and borrows large chunks of its plot; and how even Mad Max: Fury Road homages it in the scene where Max kills the Bullet Farmer off-screen. It’s a topic that’s been covered elsewhere, though, and especially for a first-time viewer (lucky you – you get to watch it for the first time!) it kind of misses the forest for the trees.

The trouble with trying to explain everything that’s great about this movie is that you end up sounding like the grandfather from The Princess Bride. Sword-fights, pitched battles, adventure, comedy, romance, heartbreak, politics… Seven Samurai pretty much has it all. The final battle against the bandits, with the whole village ri to defend themselves, is arguably the greatest in all cinema, having justifiably gone down in history and having lost none of its impact in the 70 years since people first saw it. Kurosawa might have gone on to film bigger battle sequences in Ran, but for simple emotional heft there’s little that tops this.

The 207-minute runtime might seem daunting but it honestly does fly by, thanks to flawless pacing and characters who are simply a joy to spend this much time with. There’s young and naïve Katsushiro who begins an ill-advised romance with a farmer’s daughter, effortlessly cool Kyuzo who provides the inspiration for the aforementioned scene in Fury Road, and of course the unforgettable Kikuchiyo.

Played by the great Toshiro Mifune, one of Kurosawa’s most frequent collaborators, he’s an astonishing character and the heart and soul of the movie. An arrogant braggart with massive self-esteem issues, as he ably demonstrates with the ridiculous, unnecessarily long sword he carries around, he’s the vital component of the movie’s fascinating, knotty politics. It’s ironic that this, the definitive samurai movie, should be so ambivalent about the very idea of the samurai class and questioning whether it should even exist at all. There’s a strong argument to be made that it’s a Marxist text, arguing for uplifting the peasants and doing away with the nobility.

It’s the perfect marriage of style and substance, an overwhelmingly fun adventure movie that still gives you plenty to get your teeth into after the credits roll. It’s provided inspiration for countless other movies, but the original remains uncontested. Simply one of the best films ever made.