Seven Samurai is the daddy of all action films. So why have I never watched it until now?

Thank you, Zack Snyder. It’s not very often you get to express that sentiment to the impassioned but wearyingly bombastic director of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Watchmen and – most recently – a sprawling two-movie space opera for Netflix. 

But it was when hovering over the play button for Snyder’s Rebel Moon Chapter One: Chalice of Blood – a weirdly renamed and apparently more bloody version of Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire – that I realised it had ballooned to 204 minutes long. Jeepers, I thought, that feels like another nod to Seven Samurai (which clocks in at 207 minutes but thoughtfully includes a five-minute intermission). 

Then I felt a flush of shame, having never actually gotten around to watching Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 Japanese classic, an enduring foundational text in global film culture. How can I have consumed hundreds of action movies about recruiting a rag-tag squad of warriors to grudgingly fight for what’s right and never seen the daddy of them all?

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So rather than rewatching a slightly different version of a Snyder movie that already pays obvious homage to Kurosawa’s epic – in Rebel Moon, balletic killer-turned-farmer Sofia Boutella rounds up a pic’n’mix of sci-fi badasses to protect her adopted community from a goose-stepping galactic empire – I realised it was time to spend that 204 minutes returning to the source. Turns out this is actually the perfect year to belatedly get into Seven Samurai.

To mark its 70th anniversary, the BFI has released dazzling new 4K UHD and Blu-ray editions crammed with special features and useful context. The film is set in feudal Japan at the end of the 16th century but the plot seems timeless: how do you stand up to a bully? (Answer: hire some extremely lethal help.) 

Bandits have targeted a rural farming community but decide to wait until the barley crop has been harvested to boost their haul. The panicked, penniless peasants then attempt to find some samurai who will protect their village for little more than rice and board. 

They are fortunate enough to win the sympathy of Kambei (Takashi Shimura), a veteran ronin with enough cachet to attract honourable allies. For viewers unfamiliar with the way of the samurai, the callow but well-meaning novice Katsushiro (Isao Kimura) and boisterous wannabe Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune) are useful entry points.

Much of the running time sees the seven strategising how to repel 40 attackers on horseback, drilling the fearful locals in battle tactics and cautiously being welcomed into the community.

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Kurosawa had previously been keen to make a film examining the day-to-day life of a samurai, and the rhythms of life in the village as everyone waits for the inevitable attack has something of that quality: slightly mind-numbing daily routines and minor personality clashes that evolve into camaraderie. 

“Time flies like an arrow,” notes Kambei and two hours in, a scouting party of bandits is spotted. From that point on, it is a headlong, sometimes desperate action movie, as various full-on assaults – and even a sneaky counter-strike at an opium den – unfold. 

When the brave samurai inevitably start falling in the face of battle it feels brutal and almost cosmically unfair. The surviving ronin don’t even get to enjoy their victory, as they must move on.

Like hearing Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You, there is something dazzling about experiencing the starkness of the original after hearing so many cover versions. But besides official – or unofficial – remakes like the John Sturges 1960 western The Magnificent Seven, the cheap 1980s sci-fi riff Battle Beyond the Stars or Pixar’s kid-friendly A Bug’s Life, what struck me was all the other unexpected Seven Samurai echoes from films I’ve watched over the years. 

In Shanghai Noon (2000), Owen Wilson’s would-be train robber has sketched a map of the attack that looks like a more crayon-heavy version of Kambei’s calligraphy battle plan. In A Knight’s Tale (2001), Heath Ledger attempts to make the leap from thatcher’s son to jousting gentry with the help of a scroll similar to one Kikuchiyo has acquired. And in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) when Wakanda is besieged by an alien army, Black Panther opens up one section of his energy shield to relieve the pressure, perhaps remembering Kambei’s hard-won wisdom: “Every good fort needs a gap to tempt the enemy.”

So again, thanks Zack. Now: which Yasujiro Ozu classic should I watch instead of Rebel Moon Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness (173 minutes)

The new BFI edition of Seven Samurai is available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and digital now.

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