Akira Kurosawa has been acclaimed by Westerners as the greatest Japanese filmmaker and in turn criticized by the Japanese for being too Western. Regardless, he is a true giant and influence on the cinema even today.  Noted as perhaps his most beloved film (though personally I much prefer RASHOMON), SEVEN SAMURAI is an action/adventure film about the samurai, the deadly warriors of feudal Japan. Originating many of the genre’s tropes, the film is the story of a village waylaid by bandits – the farmers residing there turn to an unlikely team of seven, unemployed samurai to protect them.

This is a truly beautiful work of art – shot outside of the studio at Kurosawa’s insistence in a specially built set designed to imitate period detail and construction. It has everything you want from a samurai movie: stoic men, young fools, the conflict between new and old, redemption, and of course a tiny bit of love.

SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) DIR. AKIRA KUROSAWA
3/13 – 8PM // $10

Somerville Theatre
55 Davis Square
Somerville, MA 02144