The story is a simple one; a poor village is threatened by bandits and so, desperately, decides to hire out some samurai to defend them. They have no money to pay these men though and so can only offer to feed them. This means anyone who would take the job is either really nobleminded or luckless. Much of the early going of the film is about finding the titular seven. In deed, the film's notable action doesn't come until well over two hours into the movie. There's nothing wrong with this though; the film does some establishing here, introducing characters and tone. The characters are colorful; they're archetypes at times but they're also a lot of fun in the hands of these actors, particularly Toshiro Mifune as a brooding badboy Kikuchiyo and Takashi Shimura as the weary, noble leader of the samurais Kambei (both of whom were regulars in director Akira Kurosawa's films). The characterization is sharp and well realized; Kurosawa manages to find ways to balanace the many characters, giving them all little shining moments. While he leans more heavily on some characters than others, it's always clear who's who.
The tone is important here. The film is serious and buys into the lofty virtues of loyalty, honor and bravery it espouses. But it's also far more playful, fun and occasionally silly than your average action blockbuster. The film spends a fair amount of time showing character joking around and pulling pranks. What's surprising is how funny the film is. The film does a nice job of balancing between being fun and merry, and also sad and tragic. The tonal shifts are always well-handled, and Kurosawa keeps the film humming along with a sense of purpose and energy. The film never feels its length.
In the hands of Kurosawa, the film has a big budget scope with an arthouse heart. Visually the film is at times moody, shadowy. The film consistently takes stock of what's at stake and the cost eventually exacted upon the characters. The film isn't really concerned with propulsive action; it takes it's time to get to the fighting and even once there it finds downtime between battles to have the characters reflect upon their feelings about the conflict. Kurosawa understands that the action isn't the real purpose of Seven Samurai. It's about telling a story, and Kurosawa is storyteller, weaving a tale of fading dreams and broken hopes that just also happens to have some very entertaining swordplay in the third act. The battle is not a goal in of itself to get to, but an outward reflection of the fight for the values that the characters believe in.
The samurai were a dying class in the period Kurosawa brings us back to (The Warring States Period). The villagers are initially scared of the warriors arrival; samurai in their new found desperation were doing anything to scrape by. To find samurais that still believed in the virtues that idealistically had defined the group was unexpected. The ending reaffirms the sentiments carried throughout the film. This is a film showing us the end of an era; this is the last hurrah for the kind of men who find it a worthy cause to defend an ailing farming village for three square meals. This bitter-sweetness underlying the conflict makes it all the sadder and more poignant.
There's clunky elements to the film, and there are stories here that just don't really work (there's a romantic subplot involving the youngest samurai that never takes off or feels necessary - though how that story ends almost redeems it). However, the film has solid storytelling, wonderful visuals, exceptionally staged action and great performances. It's thrilling, funny, sad and just a whole lot of fun. I wish more action movies had half the brains or at least half of the inventiveness of Seven Samurai.
Grade: A
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