Celebrating ‘Seven Samurai’: 70th anniversary re-release the Akira Kurosawa classic

One could say it’s a “by-the-numbers” summer with “Despicable Me 4,” “Inside Out 2”” and “A Quiet Place: Day One” among the top box office films. But one of the masterpieces of the 20th century, Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai,” is back in theaters for its 70th anniversary in a limited release in a new 4K restoration. The acclaimed, influential epic is set in a 16th century Japanese village of poor farmers who hire the seven samurai to protect them from invading bandits intent on stealing their barley crop.

The film stars two members of Japanese filmmaker’s stock company — Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura. “Samurai” as noted in the press notes for the new restoration “virtually redefined Japanese cinema’s sword play and period genres, proving Kurosawa a master of both visually thrilling and dramatically complex storytelling.”

Though “Seven Samurai” was released in Japan on April 26, 1954, and was screened that August at the Venice Film Festival, the three-hour plus epic was released slowly around the world opening in France in 1955 and stateside as “The Magnificent Seven” in July 1956. Of course, “The Magnificent Seven” was also the name of the popular 1960 Hollywood Western remake starring Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen.  The film reverted to its original title in the U.S. upon release of the Western.

Speaking of “Seven Samurai,” originally there were only going to be six samurai. Kurosawa hired Shinobu Hashimoto, who had collaborated with the filmmaker on 1950’s “Rashomon” and 1952’s “Ikiru,” as well as another “Ikiru” veteran Hideo Oguni, to write the script.  They would go to a resort or another remote location and work separately around a big table. They would then they read, discuss and criticize each other’s work. According to TCM.com: “The six samurai were fleshed out early into the production, but the director and writers decided they needed a character to bridge the gap between the samurai and the peasants, so they created a character to bridge the gap between the samurai and the peasants, Kikuchiyo (Mifune), who is a peasant by birth but aspires to warrior status.” Originally, Mifune was supposed to play Kyuzo, the stoic master swordsman. Mifune would later say that Kikuchiyo was his favorite role because he got to “be himself.” Hashimoto would later say that all the samurai were based on historical figures.

“Seven Samurai” may have transformed Mifune into an international superstar, but it is the performance of Shimura as Kambei, the wise leader of the samurai who supplies the heart and soul of the film. Maybe that was because he had samurai ancestors.  “Seven Samurai” isn’t the only classic Shimura appeared in in 1954. He also starred as Dr. Yamane in the monster masterpiece “Godzilla.”

Kurosawa ran into problems with Toho because of budget overruns. In fact, the studio pulled the plug on the production more than once causing the filmmaker to go to the board of directors to convince them that it wasn’t going to be a flop. The production also ran into problems when there was a horse shortage during the final battle sequences.

Fumio Hayasaka composed the memorable score for “Seven Samurai.” He had done the scores for six previous Kurosawa films including 1949’s “Stray Dog” and 1950’s “Rashomon.”  Kurosawa even gave him credit during the title sequence on “Seven Samurai” which was a rarity at that point in Japanese cinema. He was working on the director’s 1955 “I Live in Fear” when he died of tuberculosis at the age of 41.

The filmmaker rehearsed his cast in full costume for a month. He told the extras to “work and live together like real families during production.’ The film earned Oscar nominations for art direction-set decoration and costume design and Kurosawa received the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Besides George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, Sam Peckinpah was also influenced by Kurosawa and “Seven Samurai.” He told Film Quarterly after the release of his 1962 Western “Ride the High Country” that his “aim” was to make Westerns like Kurosawa. TCM.com states “’The Wild Bunch’ is seen by many as Peckinpah’s ‘Seven Samurai’ for its visual style, pacing and story of a group of men making one last stand for their life.” Arthur Penn was influenced by “Seven Samurai” when he made 1967’s “Bonnie and Clyde” especially, noted TCM.com, “in the slow-motion, multi-camera montage of the death of the title characters.” Penn said: “Having seen enough Kurosawa by that point, I knew how to do it.”

There were many sequels to “The Magnificent Seven” including 1966’s “Return of the Magnificent Seven,” which marked the return of Brynner (The Gunslinger robot he played in 1973’s “Westworld” was modeled after his “Magnificent Seven” character.)  That was followed by 1969’s “Guns of the Magnificent Seven”; 1972’s “The Magnificent Seven Ride”; the 1998-2000 CBS series “The Magnificent Seven”; and the 2016 feature “The Magnificent Seven” with Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt.

“Seven Samurai” also inspired such films as 1979’s “Duel of the Seven Tigers” from Hong Kong; Italy’s 1983 “The Seven Magnificent Gladiators”; the 1998 Indian film “China Gate”; and “Battle Beyond the Stars,” the 1980 Roger Corman-production penned by John Sayles which features Robert Vaughn from the original “Magnificent Seven.”

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