The Seven Samurai

This is a movie review that I wrote for school last year.

I felt that the Seven Samurai was a great movie, although at times it was quite boring. I liked how 7 different people (master tactician, apprentice, old friend, wood chopper, skillful one, serious and skillful one, and a crazy farmer’s son) with hardly any relation to each other faced 30 bandits in a few battles. It was also interesting how the farmers weren’t completely innocent themselves, as they had killed injured samurai in the past and stolen their weapons. I thought that the part where the apprentice was in love with the farmer’s daughter was unnecessary and it just abruptly ended. The story with the man who had lost his wife to bandits showed how important family was, but it was also boring and dragged on for a while. One of my favorite parts of the movie was when the old man was playing an instrument really badly for the whole scene, and a guy sleeping there said to stop because it was depressing. The other guys said, “No, keep playing!” It was also enjoyable to watch the sparring with the bamboo sticks. It was also really cute when the farmer’s son samurai was so loved by the children. It really depressed me when he died in the end though. He was the staple of the group. What I question the most from this movie is why didn’t they use the horses they stole from the bandits when fighting? It would’ve made the battle much easier. They only used the guns once, which could’ve killed the leader much more easily. It was really sad in the end when it showed the graves of the four samurai that died. The leader said, “Once again we have lost the battle. The farmers won.” I finally understood it meant that he had always beaten the enemy in the past, but he lost his friends. Although I found the movie a bit long and tedious, the Seven Samurai was amazingly well made, the weapons and scenery looked realistic, and the battle scenes were extremely intense. I give it 4.7 out of 5.