What you have here is a simplified guide to the proper initiative necessary when entering any sort of struggle – when running away is no longer an option.Īs any good leader should, Kambei constantly delivers insight on the nature of struggle. Throughout the careful steps taken towards the films climax, the audience too realizes that fighting is only a small fraction of war. Kurosawa’s leading samurai has little interest in battle at all. But more than once the modest warrior reminds his fellow recruits that their battle will bring them neither fame nor fortune. (Notice, you rarely see Kambei strike at all throughout the film.) Kurosawa’s entrance of the noble warrior resonates well within the tone of the film, as Kambei is uninterested in any sort of thoughtless battle and only agrees to help the villagers upon realizing they’re feeding him the best of their scarce supply of food. Within moments the audience is given some of the most powerful slow-motion seconds in cinema history, as Kambei kills a kidnapper.

Kambei (the original cinematic incantation of a future Obi-Wan Kenobi) arrives carelessly, approaching a river, cutting his hair to assume the identity of a priest. Kurosawa makes evident that the villagers see no hope in their future and are truly beaten. The political implications are clarified when the farmers seek out advice from the village patriarch “granddad.” In the director’s eyes, the village has reached the lowest of the low and is in dire need of aid. By losing themselves in defeat, the conflict has descended upon the village’s interior and exterior. Left destitute by bandits, they are without hope for Kurosawa, this signals the greatest weakness of all. We see the sides have already been drawn as the villagers plead on the ground for salvation, pity and even death. Kurosawa’s battlefield is a small village of terrorized farmers. Seven Samurai is a perfect step-by-step guide into the very heart of conflict. Constantly put into question by smaller battles along the way, the director paints a decadent landscape of morality, giving audiences the very essence of cinema and story in its most ancient form. Kurosawa’s stark vision of life itself is extrapolated in the picture. In 16 th century Japan, the framework of conflict is embodied within seven selfless warriors who use all of their abilities to defeat a clan of bandits. With a steady pace and extensive view into every facet of struggle, the director breaches the threshold of cinematic philosophy into a new realm of artistic meaning. The manner and tempo with which Kurosawa delivers his epic is where the message emerges. Though the portrayal of war is common among films, the true essence of conflict itself is often times overlooked.

The philosophical insight Akira Kurosawa unleashes in his epic Seven Samurai stands above most war films ever produced.

Seven samurai anime landscape