Kurosawa really was so ahead of his time, but despite his obvious love for and influence from Shakespeare, it’s hard not to look at his wipes and his short scenes and his detailed faces and think of Star Wars and modern Hollywood storytelling, the pioneer getting tarred with the brush of all who ended up deriving much of their style from him…although despite his arthouse reputation (subtitles are all that’s needed), he was still a populist and an entertainer, and drew from Westerns significantly. His pedestal should only be high enough to keep him where he deserved and most likely wished to be, at a very accessible level.
Shichinin no Samurai is simple, entertaining and character-based. While I would have liked to have seen the seven better-developed over the three-hour runtime, the film manages to be compelling, human and moving, especially at the end, when the samurai turn out to be the most wretched of all.
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