Jeff's Reviews

Thoughts on every movie I've ever seen.

Seven Samurai (1954)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa

Starring ToshirĂ´ Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima, Yukiko Shimazaki

Author

A rich story for its time, with a nice, slow build to the climactic battle scenes, dynamic camera movements, and innovative lens choices. There are a lot of qualities here, and I see how the film has a place in film history. But it’s all a bit slow by today’s standards.

Decent characters, but their believability is almost ruined by theatrical overacting. Most dialogue is delivered with yelling. Action is decent for its time, I suppose. It’s too bad they didn’t have the choreography or effects for realistically brutal swordplay. The final battle scene in the rain was ambitious.

As George Lucas’ favorite film, you can see how he used certain things for Star Wars. The samurai helmets looks like Vader’s mask, and Lucas also copied the wipe transitions.

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