Number 9: Seven Samurai (1954)

The Original Jedi

I don’t know what the fascination with Ninjas is. Samurai are infinitely cooler than Ninjas. If you don’t believe me, think about this: Jedi are Samurai with lightsabers. Jedi are not Ninjas with lightsabers. Why? Because Ninjas simply aren’t cool enough to get lightsabers.

In all seriousness, though, Seven Samurai did more than provide a blueprint for George Lucas’ robed, sword-wielding heroes. Star Wars simply screams Kurosawa, from the warriors to the story to the erasure cuts and beyond. Without Seven Samurai, there is no Star Wars, or at least not in its well known form. There is also no Magnificent Seven, obviously, although that isn’t quite as important.

Japanese Filmmakers

Why is it that some countries are just good at making movies? Obviously, America would have to be at the top of all reasonable lists. I suppose one could make an argument that we simply make so many freaking movies that we’re bound to make amazing films as we go along, but to that I have to say… yeah. We make so many freaking movies we are bound to make amazing films as we go along. Movies in America are practically like national defense. We seem to spend as much and make as much as the rest of the world combined.

But after America, other countries have plenty to offer, though certainly not every country. For instance, France seems to be very good at it. Sure, they had the French New Wave and that’s what everyone remembers, and you could make the argument that they haven’t been spectacular since then (has anyone?), but even if so, how’d they do that? How did Truffaut and Godard just pop up in the same country that produced Renoir (even if I find his films to be… opaque)? And how did Japan get so bloody good at it? Kurosawa and Ozu alone produced a list of films that would challenge most other countries. Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Rashomon, Tokyo Story…

The list, needless to say, goes on. And then there is Italy, they of the neo-realism but also they of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by the wildly underrated Sergio Leone.

And at this point, I would like to point out: Britain sucks at making movies. BBC mini-series? They literally own the territory. TV shows? I’d rather watch them than just about anything else (save for Battlestar Galactica, The West Wing and Arrested Development), but movies? Look up a list of British movies sometime. You’ll laugh. Really, you will. I’m not saying they have never made a good movie (A Man For All Seasons, Bridge on the River Kwai) but for a country that size, they get the living daylights knocked out of them by their rivals to the south, ze Fronch! (It is actually kind of funny how much better we are at movies and how much better they are at Rock n’ Roll. Look up a list of best American rock bands and you’ll laugh at that, too).

Why is it that Japan, as a country, is so fine with regards to filmmaking? I don’t know. I just thought I’d ask.

The Foreign Film Inherent Advantage/Disadvantage

When watching foreign films, I am at a disadvantage, so when appraising them, I give them a bit of an advantage. After watching Tokyo Story with a friend of mine who can actually speak Japanese (more or less) it became exceedingly obvious that many nuances of the dialogue were lost on me. Thankfully, that particular film was all the richer for my having sat next to a translator, but most of the time that does not happen. So in evaluating films with subtitles, I tend to bump them up just a bit on the Right Thumb Scale™.

With Seven Samurai, I did not have to do that. For one thing, it does what any movie worth its salt has to do, which is to tell a story with images. For another, it does it freaking well. Finally, it does it so well that the dialogue seems to come to reside in a land of necessity but not in one of importance. Watch the movie without subtitles, and you’ll still probably understand everything that is going on.

Confession To Make

I put this film on the list a few months back, before I had actually finished watching the movie. Yep. I put this movie on my favorite movies list before I had even finished watching it. The first two hours were so good, I simply assumed the next hour and a half must be as well. And for about an hour, my expectations were met.

Then it rained.

It poured.

It stormed.

In one of the most astonishing battle scenes I have ever seen put to film, it rains it pours and my goodness does it all look gorgeous. I have no idea how they convinced God to send forth heavy showers for so long (there is simply no way they did it artificially. If they did, it was an inhuman feat), but the result is an unparalleled climax to an unparalleled movie, which managed to blow up my expectations even after three hours of viewing.


Next Up: Detective Fiction Matters Again

~Right Thumb~