Seven Samurai

"Seven Samurai" is regarded as one of the greatest films by Akira Kurosawa, one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. The impact of this 1954 Japanese epic historical drama adventure film can be simply understood from the number of adaptations it has. To name a few, John Sturges's "The Magnificent Seven", Ramesh Sippy's "Sholay", John Lasseter's animated film "A Bug's Life" are all its adaptations.In "Seven Samurai", his first proper samurai film, Kurosawa has given a simple story, about a poor farming village in Sengoku period Japan that hires a group of samurai to defend it against an impending attack by bandits, a full epic treatment, and meticulously detailed action, stretching out to almost three-and-a-half hours of screen time. To elaborate on what Kurosawa meant by detailing, it needs to be mentioned here that for "Seven Samurai", he created six notebooks with detailed biographies of the samurai, including what they wore and ate, how they walked, talked and behaved when greeted, and even how each tied his shoes. For the 101 peasant characters in the film, he created a registry consisting of 23 families and instructed the performers playing these roles to live and work as these "families" for the duration of shooting.Narrative technique of filming with extensive use of long lens and multiple cameras may be common now-a-days, but this was the film which started it.For me this film deals with the heroic, albeit in realistic terms. This film truly belongs in any person's movie collection who considers himself a true aficionado of cinema; an experience in emotion, energy and vision that will not be forgotten by those who view this wonderful work.

I was comparing this to Sholay while watching this, one of the most influential and studied movie. I was thinking about the changes made and realized that we Indians like some reality but mostly fantasy which movie does not offer. I watched Sholay on its first day at Minerva, Mumbai where it ran for 5 years or so and it was great fun with the viewers all elated.I heard many have seen Sholay multiple times - 10 times or more is unheard of.Seven Samurai is a grim movie though the serious viewer will find pleasure from the movie where each scene is the best and the story is believable.

Excellent old black and white Japanese movie. Has action , humour and other flavours of life. Hats off to all the actors director and everyone involved in making this legend.

The cult classic that spawned a generation of Western movie and inspired many a directors. The story of the poor villagers at the mercy of bandits( yep Sholay was inspired by this one) would make you feel having a dejavu.Its just because you would have seen adaptations of this classic in your own language.

Great movie. It's like study material for cinematographers.The DVD graphics is different. The disc had a ton of scratches. Skipped badly.

Good DVD.

Good quality DVD.

This film has incredible story, characters, performances, camera work, music. It is really the pinnacle of movie making.

The Blu-ray is region locked for US and Canada. The description on Amazon.nl — Dutch website! — does not mention it.

My family group were very satisfied with Seven Samurai - most of us had seen it before but a long time ago, we all enjoyed it even the younger members of the group who did not know what to expect.I was delighted to be able to purchase this movie in Blu-ray format with high quality image and sound, as previously it was viewed on 35 ml celluloid which gave a very different effect.It will become a family treasure, as other members will look forward to viewing it.

Es un paquete perfecto para regalar a un fan de Akira Kurasawa, trae un libro sobre la pelicula y los significados detrás de varios elementos de la pelicula. La caja es muy bonita como de coleccion.

Why, Amazon? Why did you send me a movie that wouldn’t play?! I had the whole family gathered round the TV, anticipating a masterpiece, then - nothing. I guess it was naïve of me to expect a movie bought from Amazon.com.au to be set to the right region.

Would not play