Dir: Akira Kurosawa, 1957, Japan, bw (10*)

This masterful samurai epic (well over 3 hrs) is really a treatise on medieval war tactics. The story is about a small farming village that gets invaded and robbed by a small cavalry gang annually. Eventually they’ve had enough, and recruit seven unemployed and disgraced samurai (led by Tishiro Mifune) to help them defend themselves.

The first half is slow but told with lots of humor, the second half is an exciting war exercise and a primer on how action films should look. The innovative camerawork had never been seen, and influenced every action film since. Blurred action, mud and water flying, rapid edits; you feel plunged into the middle of the action itself. Retold as western The Magnificent Seven, and the sf film, Battle Beyond the Stars. Kurosawa’s masterpiece, one of the best in cinema history.