-Seven Samurai - A Lesson In Storytelling.

If you really want to make a movie, write a script. If it's a script, if you have a pencil and a pencil, you can write it. Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Seven Samurai is one of the most influential movies of all time. It has gone on to impact hundreds if not thousands of subsequent films. Some vary directly and others took loose inspirations, borrowing a character, a shot, a scene, or a narrative beat. And although there are countless aspects that make Seven Samurai great, if I had to point to just one that elevates it above the rest, it would be the writing. Kurosawa worked with Hideo Oguni and Shinobu Hashitomo, who passed away this last week at the age of 100, so my condolences to his family. Both of these writers have worked together with Kurosawa in the past and had combined several decades worth of writing experience before working on Seven Samurai. Their writing process was unique, and that came from the story that they were writing being very unique. One of the biggest problems that they faced was the sheer number of characters. Obviously there are the Seven Samurai, but there are also the villagers, the bandits, and other side characters who have big impacts on the story. Each of these characters are well-developed, personable, and most important, they're unique. Everyone has their own personality, their own style, and their own struggles and development. This leads to yet another problem, the length of the film. How do writers ensure that a three and a half hour movie stays fun, exciting, and interesting? Today I'd like to examine how Seven Samurai managed to tackle these two potential troubling areas, and not only mitigate them, but actually turn them into assets that help strengthen the movie. But to begin, I want to examine the structure of the film. As aforementioned, this is a very long movie, clocking in at just three minutes shy of three and a half hours. And although it has a lot to say, it still manages to say it efficiently. Just a few minutes into the movie, we've already set up our overarching conflict. The bandits attack the village, making it near impossible for the villagers to live in peace. Very quickly, the story changes and the central focus becomes recruiting samurai to help defend the village from future attacks. This acts as a central focus that helps to tie the entire movie together. Everything that we see from this point onward relates to this idea, but it doesn't exclusively focus on this. Take, for example, our introduction to Kambai, the future leader of the samurai, who cleverly shaves his head to disguise himself as a priest to help rescue a child being held captive. As Roger Ebert points out in his review of the film, this may have been the first example of an action hero who is introduced to the audience in a dangerous situation that is completely unrelated to the plot. This introduction tells us a lot about Kambai, that he is brave, noble, dedicated to doing what is right, he's smart, he's clever. The movie may dedicate a lot of time to side plots and side storylines, but all of these help to serve the main narrative or tell us about our characters. The film spends nearly an hour introducing us to the other six samurai, time that the film uses to help develop the characters. However, even after they are all gathered in together, the film still takes its time to ensure that the audience knows what is at stake. This is a movie that takes place over a year, and that is relayed to us through the length of the film, but also through the passing of seasons and Kambai's hair regrowing. We as the audience feel the weight of the situation in large part because of how the film was structured. As the story continues and as various side stories are concluded, it helps to tell us more about the main narrative. It's one story that is the result of many, and the conclusion to the movie, an epic battle scene, is in itself a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Because it is all connected, it feels so much more rewarding. Now it makes all of these smaller segments feel connected and part of one unified story. As aforementioned, being able to get to know the characters is one of the film's biggest strengths. I don't want to spend too much time comparing this movie to either of its American counterparts, the Magnificent Sevens, but after revisiting both stories, one of the biggest things that sticks out to me about Seven Samurai is how much we know about each of these characters. There are no throwaway characters. They each have their own reason for wanting to help the villagers. Katsushiro, for example, wants to train under Kambai. He's willing to risk his own life in order to try and make it better. Kiyochu was once himself a peasant and sees himself in them. Defending them is his way of dealing with his past and his parents' death. You can go through the list. All seven of these samurai do it for different reasons. Some more selfish than others, but the point is they're all unique and they're all developed characters. The final aspect of the movie that I want to discuss is the humor. First, I'll say that it's subtle. Now, it isn't in every scene, but there is enough humor to carry the narrative and still make the movie enjoyable. This is a very dark movie, full of dark ideas. Three and a half hours of questionable morals, death, and the loss of innocence could be a little much. So the writers made sure to include enough humor to ensure that the movie still feels human. Much of this comes at the expense of Kiyochu, who's played brilliantly by Toshiro Mifune. A lot of this humor is slapstick. Kiyochu is inexperienced, cocky, and too aggressive for his own good. And the ironic part about his character is that Mifune was the most talented out of all the actors in the film when it comes to sword fighting and horse riding, yet his character is made to look like a dolt. His ability to play this dolt to help ensure that the movie is the best that it can be is in part what made him such a great actor. He was given a very specific role in the screenplay, something that he had never played before, and he did it masterfully. All of the great work that went into the script was matched with just as much talent in front of and behind the camera. And when you go through element by element in this movie, everything works perfectly, and it comes from the dedication of the cast and crew. There are countless examples of great screenplays that result in movies that are just good, but this isn't one of them. Every detail was carefully planned out and ensured to be the best that it could be, and the result was one of the best movies of all time. Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed. Seven Samurai is excellent. It's a movie that I've wanted to talk about for a while now, but also wanted to wait to make sure that I'm saying exactly what I want to say about the movie. I'd love for the discussion to continue, so please drop a comment and let me know your thoughts on the film. I'd also like to mention that this video is made possible because of Patreon. If you're interested in supporting the channel, that is the best way to do so. There are a lot of great rewards over there, including early access, bonus content, and even getting a say in what videos come next, so if you're interested, there's a link on screen. There's also a link to my last video in which I looked at Once Upon a Time in America. Now the setting helps change the story, so if you're interested in that, please check it out. Anyway, thanks for watching.