The theatre’s lights fade.
A lady opens her phone on full brightness, only to be shushed and disciplined by those around her. People wonder whether their parking ticket will expire before this film ends.
A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.
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There’s few cases in my life where I am completely intimidated by a film. The only examples I can think of are Salo, Dancer in the Dark and The Holy Mountain. With these films, it is either the subject matter or running-time that will make me hesitant, when it comes to sitting down to watch them. Now I’m not one to completely dismiss a film because of it’s running time. Some of my favourite films, such as Blue Is The Warmest Colour, are around three hours long – a film that is really high on my to-watch list, is Edward Yang’s A Bright Summer Day which runs at three-hours and fifty-seven minutes.
Now, Seven Samurai didn’t intimidate me only because of it’s running time (three and a half hours) or the fact that it’s shot in black-and-white, and from the fifties. I was intimidated because of the legacy that it holds; apparently being one of the greatest films ever made. When films are put on such a pedestal like this, you feel almost forced to like them. I personally don’t love The Godfather series as much as others, and I can remember when I first watched it and trying to deny the fact that I was disappointed.
While driving to the New South Wales’ Art Gallery on an early Sunday morning to watch my second film of this year’s Sydney Film Festival – the sold-out screening of Seven Samurai – I was constantly worrying.
What if I hate it?
What if I fall asleep?
What if I need to use the bathroom?
Is there going to be an intermission? Because my legs will die.
When I arrived on the large, slippery steps out front, I was surrounded by a crowd of people of all ages, dressed up in thick coats, and casually sipping tea from white, styrofoam cups. I overheard discussions about Kurosawa, the film’s director, and how Seven Samurai changed both Asian and Western cinema forever. When the gallery doors finally opened, the air became thick with the sound of rubber heels slapping against the floor, and the urgent sounds of couples telling each other to “hurry up or we’ll get a bad seat”.
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My dad and I finally found our seat (luckily; my favourite seat in any cinema: halfway between screen and projector; in the centre) and watched as people piled on top of each other to find a spot. As the lights dimmed, David Stratton, the legendary Australian film critic, introduced the film. He referenced the screenings of the film at one of the early Sydney Film Festivals, and talked about the production of the film, since it was the most expensive Japanese film ever made, at the time.
He then used a phrase that made me think for a few seconds – “This was my first Kurosawa film”. Now, this is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot with all great directors.
Wild Strawberries was my first Bergman film.
Eraserhead was my first encounter with David Lynch. “This was my first Malick.” Etc.
He then stated that Seven Samurai changed the way that he looked at film. At that point, I was overcome with this odd feeling that this screening was going to be important to me.
The lights fell dark, and the hum of voices shrunk to a silence, as the opening credits started to roll. –
An hour later and the film had an intermission (my question was answered!). I immediately sent photos to Film In Revolt’s organiser – “it’s amazinggggg”.
And it was. The first half of Seven Samurai is honestly one of the greatest chapters to any film I’ve ever seen. The way that Kurosawa directed scenes is still, to this day; brilliant. All of the film’s shots contain some sort of movement, whether thats from an object in the background, or from the camera itself, moving. This means that the viewing experience of the film is always really stimulating, and your eyes are always moving. Here’s a really fantastic video about the way Kurosawa composes movement in his films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doaQC-S8de8&t=
The editing was perfect, and cut dialogue scenes together beautifully. I loved how Kurosawa put an emphasis on every act of violence, by drowning out the atmospheric sound and shooting it in slow- motion. The score to the film is inspiring and emotional; but also dark and brooding. The score combines both traditional Japanese instruments and also some slightly jazzy elements, which I always notice about Japanese films from that era.
It’s really strange, and maybe even a bit lame, but a lot of time when I become emotional in films, is not from a sad moment on screen; but from how cinematic a sequence is. This has happened in the Ecstasy of Gold scene from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and the California Dreamin’ scene from Chungking Express. Well, it has happened once again, in Seven Samurai, as the fantastic anthem plays over a shot of Takashi Shimura smiling in a doorway.
The bath of incandescent light from above disappeared, and the second half began. –
Thunderous applause started, as soon as the screen faded to black. Everyone got up and left, stretching their tired legs and stiff backs.
The second half of the film is mostly battle scenes, rather than the much more slowly paced dialogue set-pieces from the first half. It’s weird, but, in my opinion, the second half is actually a bit of a let down from the first half. It’s still fantastic and one would argue that Kurosawa’s filmmaking talents are one display more, but for me, the building of the characters from the first half was a lot more interesting. Even though the pacing is a lot faster, I found myself growing a bit tiresome from the extensive, and to be honest, repetitive battle scenes (this might be due to the fact that I’d been sitting in a dark room for almost four hours, though).
Kurosawa utilises telephoto lenses in the action scenes, which was almost never done in those days. He also used a multi camera setup, to catch moments from more than one angle. The action scenes are still a step up from any blandly-shot, $300m blockbuster release today. Kurosawa makes you actually feel the consequence of each action in ‘Seven Samurai’, rather than today’s method of trying to hide poor choreography behind flashy special effects. There’s actually a really fascinating video essay about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZSRxp-dJ-Q
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Is this one of the celebrated films of all time, that stands as one of the greats? Sure.
Therefore, is this a perfect movie, that is completely immune from criticism? No.
Despite the issues I had with the films latter half, there is no denying the absolute precision of Kurosawa’s direction.
This is for sure some of the best filmmaking these eyes have ever seen. This is one of the best theatre experiences I’ve ever had.
This is my first Kurosawa film.
