Seven Samurai

Matt Milton's Review:

This could be a really kick-ass movie. The story is as cool as it gets. A farming village threatened by bandits has to recruit samurai to fight back, but they can only pay in rice. Their search for hired help brings together a group of facinating characters and leads to some potentially spectacular battles. I say "potentially" because, although Kurosawa did the best he could with the technology available, black and white just doesn't cut it. The other FX leave a lot to be desired too. The swords don't even whoosh when they swing 'em, and nobody ever gets cut in half. Wouldn't hurt to do it in English, either.

Still, if you haven't seen this flick, check it out. They're saying that James Cameron is looking at getting the rights to do the re-make (possibly with fourteen samurai instead of just seven, and more guns!), and you'll have all the best spoilers if you've seen this version!

Ed Phillips's Review:

Why are we doing an old movie in JAPANESE???? This one of Judith's frekin ideas isnt it. I didn't watch this past the first part when they talked to that really old guy but what I saw was pretty boring!!!

Calvin Schultz's Review:

We buy our cars, our televisions, and our computers from these people, and on top of all that they want us to buy their half-baked propaganda and call it entertainment. In Seven Samurai, a bunch of farmers, portrayed by Kurosawa as pathetic bunglers, have to seek elitist outside help to protect themselves from bandits. It's worth noting that the bandits have guns and the "noble" samurai do not, a clear attack on gun owners who stand up for their second amendment rights. As usual with such liberal attacks, his logic falls apart when we consider that if the villagers had bought guns they wouldn't have needed "samurai" to defend them.

As the movie progresses, Kurosawa continues to degrade the farmers. When they aren't bungling, they're greedy and dishonest. A father who tries to shield his daughter from the rapacious samurai is ridiculed and treated with scorn even by his fellow villagers. Only through the help of a "liberal warrior elite" are they able to defend their homes from gun-wielding "bandits".

I would only recommend this movie if you're interested in seeing how the liberal propaganda machine works in foreign films. Personally, I found it impossible to take this stuff seriously.

Thomas Williams-Martin's Review:

Seven Samurai is a fairly typical movie of its type. As the success of its American re-make, The Magnificent Seven, demonstrates, this movie is essentially a Japanese western. And like any western, the plot of this movie is just an excuse for the violence. It boils down to bandits versus farmers, with samurai thrown in to make it more exciting.

The leader of the samurai, Kambei, claims to be sick of killing, so why doesn't he find some way to help the bandits (who are clearly disenfranchised by the Japanese government and are just as much victims as the farmers) and the villagers reach a compromise? The bandits are starving and the villagers have food. It seems so obvious.

Instead we spend over three hours watching the samurai act out against the bandits. The killing continues until there's no one left to be killed.

This movie is good for teaching people to be serial killers, but not much else.