Seven Samurai

Seven Samurai is a 1954 Japanese adventure drama co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film takes place in 1587 during a time when many states in Japan were at war. It follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven masterless samurai (ronin) to fight bandits who steal their crops. The film was the first samurai movie that Kurosawa ever directed. He had originally wanted to direct a film about a single day in the life of a samurai but later discovered in his research a story about samurai defending farmers. The film was originally going to be called Six Samurai until Kurosawa decided to create a seventh character who was a little different and had an appealing, zany personality.

Seven Samurai is described as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. It is one of a select few Japanese films to become widely known in the West and was voted onto Sight & Sound's list of the ten greatest films of all time in 1982. It ranked #1 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010. It was the single largest movie ever made by a Japanese filmmaker at the time and was a technical and creative masterpiece. At 207 minutes long, it was the longest picture of Kurosawa's career. Its influence can be clearly witnessed in many Hollywood movies that have been made since, especially those that have a group of heroes all fighting for the same cause.