Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / Seven Samurai (1954) - Akira Kurosawa | Houselights #272

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Seven Samurai (1954) - Akira Kurosawa | Houselights #272 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to the ned Palty.
0:21
Speaker 2: Welcome back to House Lights, in specific this time the
0:24
Speaker 2: House of Curasawa, where we are looking at the works
0:27
Speaker 2: of Akira cure Sawa, the legendary Japanese film director who
0:31
Speaker 2: had such an outsized influence on world cinema. And we
0:35
Speaker 2: are going to be exploring this week the epic film
0:40
Speaker 2: The Seventh Samurai, which was released many moons ago but
0:46
Speaker 2: had many many, many imitators, followers and references throughout film history,
0:53
Speaker 2: released in nineteen fifty four. We'll be exploring with this
0:56
Speaker 2: film the way it approaches individual responsibility within societal expectation,
1:02
Speaker 2: class distinctions. All of these different things, including the role
1:07
Speaker 2: of the Samurai and how the world was changing around them.
1:10
Speaker 2: All these layers are there for us to explore here
1:14
Speaker 2: as we explore The Seven Samurai. I am one of
1:17
Speaker 2: your hosts, John Mills, and I am happy to be
1:20
Speaker 2: joined on this journey to defend this podcast by my
1:24
Speaker 2: two dear friends, Master Soordsman Darren Moser and lovable hunky
1:30
Speaker 2: boy who's going to wander into the village and make
1:33
Speaker 2: all the young ladies fall in love with him, Tristan Riddell.
1:37
Speaker 2: Tristan and Darren Are you ready to talk about Seven Samurai?
1:40
Speaker 2: Because I believe this is another one where the two
1:43
Speaker 2: of you this is your first encounter with this specific
1:45
Speaker 2: Curasawa film.
1:46
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, all of these are going to be my
1:49
Speaker 3: first encounter.
1:51
Speaker 2: Well, it's always good to remind the audience and myself
1:53
Speaker 2: because I forget from week to week as well. So
1:57
Speaker 2: basically what I want to ask first, and Darren O'll
2:00
Speaker 2: it to you first, even though this is your first viewing. Obviously,
2:03
Speaker 2: you know seven Samurai by reputation, how many of its
2:07
Speaker 2: imitators or film references or even just cultural remakes have
2:16
Speaker 2: you seen, you know, like Magnificent Seven, stuff like that.
2:18
Speaker 2: How much of an impact have you seen from Seven
2:21
Speaker 2: Samurai despite never having seen the film?
2:23
Speaker 4: It definitely is one of those types of films, And
2:26
Speaker 4: like you mentioned, I think many people's sideways exposure to
2:31
Speaker 4: it is probably from the Magnificent Seven. I think it's
2:35
Speaker 4: the most known other film, either you know, the classic
2:38
Speaker 4: or the remake, And that was definitely true for me.
2:42
Speaker 4: And you know, I kind of describe it as if
2:46
Speaker 4: a child was explaining this movie in twenty words or less.
2:50
Speaker 4: That's how you kind of look at a reference of
2:53
Speaker 4: you know, village and trouble go get help help, you
2:57
Speaker 4: know comes you know, the big broad strokes I think
3:01
Speaker 4: are how homages really come through for this movie. But
3:04
Speaker 4: to go back to the source where you know, like
3:08
Speaker 4: I said that outline as it were, but you don't
3:12
Speaker 4: know how long it's going to be or how long
3:15
Speaker 4: we're going to be in the village in the other village.
3:19
Speaker 4: But I'm not saying that to detract it. I'm just
3:21
Speaker 4: saying you're letting it play out because you know those
3:25
Speaker 4: broad strokes, and that's how I approached it. It's like, Okay,
3:28
Speaker 4: I know that not all seven survive. I know that
3:32
Speaker 4: the villagers need to recruit Samurai and the bandits are coming,
3:36
Speaker 4: you know. I know they'll give and not ask for
3:39
Speaker 4: the pesos at the No. Eight that's a different that's
3:42
Speaker 4: a different movie.
3:43
Speaker 5: Slightly different currency, slightly.
3:44
Speaker 4: Different currency, and there were three of them instead of seven.
3:47
Speaker 4: But yeah, I think that's just really all I knew.
3:52
Speaker 4: And I think I also knew about the Samurai with
3:55
Speaker 4: the giant sword that he, you know, was walking around
3:57
Speaker 4: with it. Not giant, but like larger a normal sword.
4:01
Speaker 4: And obviously that was played by our good friend who's
4:05
Speaker 4: going to be in almost every single Kirasola movie we
4:09
Speaker 4: talked about. Oh, which one was in? Is that Yoshido? No?
4:14
Speaker 4: That was a.
4:14
Speaker 5: Villageer to share a Mafune's character.
4:16
Speaker 2: Yes, that's yes, Yeah, yeah, who had I think?
4:22
Speaker 4: I mean a really interesting arc as the farmer child
4:26
Speaker 4: who was his family was killed by bandits and came
4:30
Speaker 4: back with a sword like that's that's awesome.
4:33
Speaker 2: It is definitely a really really interesting Tristan same question
4:37
Speaker 2: to you. I mean, like, is this one of those
4:39
Speaker 2: movies where you feel like you had seen it before
4:41
Speaker 2: you saw it because of all of the references that
4:43
Speaker 2: you saw, And if so, did the movie take you
4:46
Speaker 2: by surprise in terms of everything that it did explore?
4:49
Speaker 3: Well? I was just I was taken aback by how
4:52
Speaker 3: much Kirasawa ripped off McTiernan with Thirteenth Warrior.
4:56
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, I mean it's parallels are just absolutely unbelievable.
5:01
Speaker 3: With the TI I just I just don't understand how
5:04
Speaker 3: he got away with that. Yeah, but no, And to
5:07
Speaker 3: answer your question, yeah, this is this is again, every
5:10
Speaker 3: single week of the of Kurrasau will be a shameful
5:14
Speaker 3: week for me because it's, uh, this is one of
5:16
Speaker 3: those movies where you know everything about it because it's
5:19
Speaker 3: so omnipresent and cinema and film uh and cinema lovers
5:24
Speaker 3: and and film lovers and everything like that, and like
5:27
Speaker 3: a like a you know, I jokingly talked about Thirteenth Warrior.
5:31
Speaker 3: I was super surprised about about how Thirteenth Warrior is
5:36
Speaker 3: almost beat for beat the same as Seven Samurai. Like
5:42
Speaker 3: even when they go like a like in seven Samurai
5:45
Speaker 3: when they go to when they're where they're sleeping and
5:50
Speaker 3: then they burn it down. It's like when Antonio Benderis's
5:54
Speaker 3: character and the and the rest of them go into
5:56
Speaker 3: the caves and kill the kill the mother, and then
6:01
Speaker 3: then that that precedes the final battle. You know, It's
6:04
Speaker 3: just like there was just a lot of moments like.
6:06
Speaker 4: Thirteen Tristan obviously a totally different movie. Seven is not thirteen.
6:10
Speaker 4: I don't even see where you're going with this.
6:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, And also I mean there's a I
6:16
Speaker 3: think there's more than one Star Trek episode that is
6:19
Speaker 3: based off of this plotline. Like Darren you you talked
6:22
Speaker 3: about it about how it's like villages need in trouble,
6:25
Speaker 3: like villages in trouble, village finds Warriors, Warriors defend village
6:29
Speaker 3: from bandits. I mean, like that just that it's so simplistic.
6:33
Speaker 2: I mean there's even years later in Star Wars the
6:36
Speaker 2: Clone Wars, there's a couple of episodes where it's bounty
6:40
Speaker 2: hunters that they come and they get and those bounty
6:42
Speaker 2: hunters wind up depending the village and it's like, if
6:43
Speaker 2: you've seen Seven Samurai, you're like, uh, yeah, hey, that's
6:47
Speaker 2: not even the What winds up ultimately being the final
6:53
Speaker 2: fight between Kenobi and mal is an homage to Seven Samurai.
6:58
Speaker 5: Like the whole like it's just so baked.
7:00
Speaker 4: Throughout art type at this point, right, And.
7:03
Speaker 2: The whole reason I mean, being an old Star Wars
7:06
Speaker 2: fan like I am, Yeah, the reason I watched it
7:10
Speaker 2: for the first time back in the nineties was because
7:13
Speaker 2: we were reading all of this stuff about it and
7:15
Speaker 2: it was like, so you read Joseph Campbell and you
7:17
Speaker 2: watched Hidden Fortress, and you watch Seven Samurai because that
7:21
Speaker 2: was just what you did because there wasn't an Internet
7:24
Speaker 2: to tell you what to think about things, and so
7:25
Speaker 2: you watched it for yourself and it was I'll I like,
7:30
Speaker 2: this is my one sidebar before I get to the
7:32
Speaker 2: next question is like, that's why I've always thrown so
7:35
Speaker 2: much praise on George Lucas's the best film school instructor
7:40
Speaker 2: I could have had without going to film school. Because
7:43
Speaker 2: of Star Wars and all of its references. I wound
7:46
Speaker 2: up finding my way to all of these great works
7:48
Speaker 2: of art that enriched my life, and I was like, hey, hey,
7:52
Speaker 2: he was onto something here. But you know, all of
7:56
Speaker 2: that aside, I think that what's interesting is that this
8:01
Speaker 2: is another film that was not embraced by critics, especially
8:06
Speaker 2: in Japan when it first came out. It took the
8:08
Speaker 2: international audience to warm up to it, and then it
8:11
Speaker 2: took decades for people to come back to it. Another
8:13
Speaker 2: Citizen Kane reference thrown in there for good measure and
8:17
Speaker 2: everything like that. So one of the criticisms while we're
8:20
Speaker 2: sitting here talking about Kursaw's influence on Western cinema was
8:25
Speaker 2: Japanese critics felt it was too western in its approach,
8:30
Speaker 2: and it even had Western critics say that it reminded
8:34
Speaker 2: them of cowboy films, which is funny because we all
8:37
Speaker 2: think of seven Samurais having vastly influenced.
8:40
Speaker 5: Them because of the Magnificent seven thing. Now Darren.
8:43
Speaker 2: As you look at this, did you feel that there
8:45
Speaker 2: was Western DNA in this? Did you feel that this
8:48
Speaker 2: was a blending of cultural influence from a different perspective.
8:54
Speaker 4: I mean, I really have no context because I don't
8:58
Speaker 4: know what to compare it to from Japanese cinema before
9:03
Speaker 4: nineteen fifty. So we're p postwar, we're post occupation. I
9:08
Speaker 4: believe like they had pulled out and that's why Samurai
9:11
Speaker 4: films were made again, because they were repressed during the
9:15
Speaker 4: you know, the follow up after World War Two. So
9:20
Speaker 4: in a way, I mean, it felt familiar with the
9:24
Speaker 4: structure there was, and I maybe I should probably think,
9:28
Speaker 4: you know, comparing it to russiam On, it did feel
9:32
Speaker 4: a little more traditional. But I'm kind of just you know,
9:36
Speaker 4: throwing samurai swords at the wall and just guessing. But
9:41
Speaker 4: I will say it didn't feel like anything out of place,
9:45
Speaker 4: where there was a tradition or a style or something
9:49
Speaker 4: like that that was foreign to me that I didn't
9:52
Speaker 4: understand at all. It'll it painted with the broad strokes
9:57
Speaker 4: that I enjoyed. I could see where they're going. There
10:01
Speaker 4: wasn't a cultural thing that surprised me or anything like that.
10:06
Speaker 2: Tristan, is this something where you think it it winds
10:10
Speaker 2: up illustrating a universality to certain cultural aspects regardless of
10:15
Speaker 2: what society you're in, or do you think that there
10:17
Speaker 2: was some sort of commingling of influence on it?
10:20
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's kind of like what we talked
10:23
Speaker 3: about last week with Raschamon, where the story is so
10:29
Speaker 3: primal that it doesn't need to be feudal Japan, and
10:34
Speaker 3: I think the same. The same goes for obviously seven Samurai,
10:37
Speaker 3: because we've talked about so many remix and influences. I mean,
10:40
Speaker 3: like we talked about Vikings doing this, we talked about
10:43
Speaker 3: cowboys doing this. Uh, you know, I'm pretty sure that
10:49
Speaker 3: I couldn't even finish it. But Rebel Moon, I'm sure
10:52
Speaker 3: had a lot of influences from that life.
10:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, bugs life and Samurai with Bugs.
10:59
Speaker 2: And Ug's life, I can tell you, speaking even as
11:02
Speaker 2: a Snyder fan, significantly better than Rebel Moon.
11:06
Speaker 5: So good choice. So on not finishing that one.
11:08
Speaker 3: Trist I tried, I really did try. Yeah, and I'm
11:12
Speaker 3: a Snyder.
11:12
Speaker 2: Fan and let it never be spoken of on this
11:14
Speaker 2: podcast again, go on.
11:17
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's I think this is it is interesting
11:20
Speaker 3: that when you read the behind the scenes and everything
11:22
Speaker 3: like that where Eastern audiences were like adds too much
11:25
Speaker 3: like the West and Krasaw it just kind of scratches
11:29
Speaker 3: his head and goes, well, yeah, I do love john Ford,
11:32
Speaker 3: you know. And it's just kind of like with people
11:36
Speaker 3: saying like, oh, you know, like George Lucas, like this
11:39
Speaker 3: is a lot like seven Samurai. He's like, well, you know,
11:41
Speaker 3: I do love Kira Kurosawa, you know, like it's just, oh,
11:44
Speaker 3: everything goes back and forth and back and forth. And
11:47
Speaker 3: it's even in the Bible where it says nothing new
11:50
Speaker 3: is under the sun.
11:51
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I'll give Lucas credit for at least
11:54
Speaker 2: openly admitting he's like, oh yeah, no, no, no, no,
11:57
Speaker 2: those are the guys that I liked. You'll see that,
11:59
Speaker 2: don't worry. But you know, in addition to the critical reviews,
12:05
Speaker 2: there's the box office reception, and again it's not a
12:08
Speaker 2: big hit, and this one, unlike Rachamon, doesn't get the
12:12
Speaker 2: awards accolades that Raschamon did. Darren, I mean, looking at
12:18
Speaker 2: it through your first time eyes, this is your first viewing,
12:22
Speaker 2: is there something about it that strikes you as to
12:24
Speaker 2: why it had trouble finding an audience engaging people back then,
12:29
Speaker 2: not in terms of like your own personal thing, but
12:32
Speaker 2: is there anything in the film where you look at
12:33
Speaker 2: and you're like, you know what?
12:34
Speaker 5: I get why people didn't really really dig on this.
12:38
Speaker 4: It's hard because it is a really good movie. I mean,
12:41
Speaker 4: maybe if you don't like intermissions or something, you know
12:45
Speaker 4: that long, But that was that was common in the fifties,
12:48
Speaker 4: or more common than nowadays. So I don't think it's that.
12:53
Speaker 4: I think I don't know. I mean, you're also in
12:56
Speaker 4: the fifties, you're black and white, not well, gosh, I
13:02
Speaker 4: don't even know what they would do in the fifties.
13:04
Speaker 4: Would this have been a dubbed film for American release,
13:08
Speaker 4: because I don't think. I feel bad that I don't
13:10
Speaker 4: know if subtitles were a thing in the fifties, But
13:12
Speaker 4: I have no idea if subtitles were a thing in
13:14
Speaker 4: the fifties.
13:15
Speaker 2: Now, I'm pretty sure a film like this wouldn't have
13:17
Speaker 2: been dubbed. I think you would have had to see
13:19
Speaker 2: the rise of like god Silla movies and stuff like that.
13:23
Speaker 2: But of course I can't speak from a position of authority.
13:25
Speaker 2: All I can tell you is that I know that
13:27
Speaker 2: the film was recut several times.
13:30
Speaker 5: To make it recutter, yes, to make it five.
13:35
Speaker 3: What it was was, if only we could get an
13:38
Speaker 3: extended edition the same day, just bring the family down.
13:42
Speaker 2: I feel like so much was left on the floor,
13:44
Speaker 2: considering that production took one hundred and forty eight working days,
13:48
Speaker 2: which is the absolute polar opposite. This is like the
13:52
Speaker 2: Apocalypse now production schedule compared to like the Conversation shooting schedule. Right,
13:58
Speaker 2: Like we talked about how Roman was, like it was
14:01
Speaker 2: the thing. It's post production was a week and that
14:04
Speaker 2: was delayed twice by fires. And then this has one
14:07
Speaker 2: hundred and forty eight days and that's that's not even
14:12
Speaker 2: that's not even post.
14:13
Speaker 3: And it was shut down four times because it went
14:16
Speaker 3: over budget. I think it's original budget.
14:19
Speaker 4: Oh gosh, well, I did notice one thing that we
14:22
Speaker 4: mentioned last week with Rassaman, especially at the beginning when
14:26
Speaker 4: the villagers went over to the old mill, and we
14:28
Speaker 4: saw the entire journey of every villager down the street,
14:34
Speaker 4: over the bridge, through the field, up to the mill
14:38
Speaker 4: into the mill. Like I was like, oh, that's right,
14:41
Speaker 4: they we show we show everything of the of the journey.
14:45
Speaker 2: We do we do we show all of the steps
14:47
Speaker 2: to underline how difficult life was Tristan. Just as a question,
14:52
Speaker 2: I mean, do you think that the comparisons to the
14:56
Speaker 2: Western genre, or even its influence on the Western genre
14:59
Speaker 2: has to do with as film becomes a more popular medium,
15:04
Speaker 2: people start to look at the not entirely distant past,
15:08
Speaker 2: but a past that people could still vaguely in.
15:12
Speaker 5: A cultural sense.
15:13
Speaker 2: Remember, you know, the Western here there were people still
15:16
Speaker 2: alive who grew up in the frontier days. You know,
15:20
Speaker 2: might have been very young, but they were around then,
15:22
Speaker 2: or they their grandfather was or something like that. Do
15:26
Speaker 2: you think that Curisawa's leaning into a cultural norm of
15:32
Speaker 2: wanting to look back at the past and see what
15:35
Speaker 2: it can teach us?
15:36
Speaker 3: Uh, Well, this one being, you know, five hundred years
15:40
Speaker 3: in the past. I don't think there's going to be
15:42
Speaker 3: any grandfather's stories. That's true about that's one true, But
15:48
Speaker 3: I think there's we always have romanticized visions of the
15:53
Speaker 3: past in certain areas, like and so I'm gonna I'm
15:58
Speaker 3: gonna morph that question into what I want to talk about.
16:00
Speaker 3: So with the with the romanticized versions of like you
16:05
Speaker 3: look at the West, there is a romanticized version of it,
16:08
Speaker 3: Like we look at Western films and like you have
16:09
Speaker 3: some things that are like unforgiven, but you have other
16:12
Speaker 3: things that are you know, like it's it was a
16:14
Speaker 3: bunch of cowboys just running around and having a good
16:17
Speaker 3: time and you know and sleeping under the stars and
16:20
Speaker 3: eating beans at a campfire, when it was very much
16:23
Speaker 3: not that. And then you have romanticized versions of medieval times,
16:29
Speaker 3: like with knights, you know, like living by a code
16:31
Speaker 3: and chivalry and things like that. And then like that's
16:34
Speaker 3: very analogous to how people and cultures view Samurais, Like
16:39
Speaker 3: Samurais are very very viewed like knights. And I know
16:43
Speaker 3: that Kirasawa has said that he comes from a direct
16:47
Speaker 3: line of Samurai, and so that's actually why he has
16:52
Speaker 3: that scene where Funi's character is very critical of Samurai,
17:00
Speaker 3: saying like oh yeah, like you know farmers and misers,
17:02
Speaker 3: but how do you think they became that way? Because
17:04
Speaker 3: Samurais took advantage of them and you know, killed them,
17:09
Speaker 3: assaulted their women and stole their crop and everything like that,
17:12
Speaker 3: like this is this The reason these people are this
17:16
Speaker 3: way is because Samurai took advantage of their power and
17:20
Speaker 3: he got a lot of flak for that when it
17:22
Speaker 3: came out, because people still had had and have that
17:25
Speaker 3: romanticized view of samurai, and kiras Out himself wanted to
17:30
Speaker 3: kind of apologize for his own lineage of what his
17:34
Speaker 3: own family had done. But then of course, you know,
17:38
Speaker 3: we're following the good samurai.
17:39
Speaker 2: See that's interesting to me specifically because there was a
17:43
Speaker 2: professor mind back in college. He actually wrote a fascinating book.
17:48
Speaker 2: His name was Michael Olmert. A book was called Milton's
17:51
Speaker 2: Teeth and Ovid's Umbrella, and in it he had a
17:54
Speaker 2: chapter where what he broke down was in light of
18:00
Speaker 2: what you're talking about, the romanticized thing. He talked about
18:03
Speaker 2: the cultural similarity between how in the West you had
18:07
Speaker 2: the bandits and the outlaws, but then you also had
18:09
Speaker 2: the sheriffs and you had the townsfolk, and you had
18:12
Speaker 2: that sort of thing. And he goes, and if you
18:13
Speaker 2: went over to feudal Japan, he goes like, basically, in
18:18
Speaker 2: an indirect way, he was addressing this question where he
18:20
Speaker 2: was like, it was very similar because you had the ronan,
18:24
Speaker 2: you had the rogue samurai that would go out.
18:26
Speaker 5: Those were the outlaws, the cowboys.
18:28
Speaker 2: From Tombstone, but then you had the law men too,
18:30
Speaker 2: and those were the good Samurai, like you know, like
18:33
Speaker 2: Wyatt Up and stuff like that. You have the people
18:35
Speaker 2: in the gray area, like Daclata, you know, like that
18:37
Speaker 2: sort of legendary sort of thing. And I think that's
18:40
Speaker 2: just one of those things where I think I think
18:43
Speaker 2: that if anything, if you watch like, you know, seven Samurai,
18:48
Speaker 2: or you watch Tombstone, or you watch any john Ford film,
18:52
Speaker 2: there is some romanticizing going on. But I think people
18:55
Speaker 2: were always very cognizant of the fact that, you know,
19:00
Speaker 2: especially the context of this movie, Samurai is a class,
19:04
Speaker 2: and you had good people and bad people in the class.
19:06
Speaker 2: You couldn't you couldn't you could generalize a class, but
19:11
Speaker 2: each individual was their own person so far as it went.
19:15
Speaker 2: And Darren, you know, do you think that the film
19:17
Speaker 2: did a good job of characterizing these Samurai distinctly enough
19:22
Speaker 2: that you could follow their individual arcs clearly or did
19:26
Speaker 2: it get messy at any point?
19:29
Speaker 4: No? I give it major, you know, props for not
19:35
Speaker 4: only making it very clear who each Samurai was kind
19:39
Speaker 4: of their own little code. I even loved when they're
19:43
Speaker 4: in the city and just random Samurai walking back and forth,
19:47
Speaker 4: and they're checking out each one and I just was
19:49
Speaker 4: picturing the prop master that day, like, okay, you get
19:52
Speaker 4: two swords and this, and then you're gonna walk by
19:54
Speaker 4: and like because they had to, you know, create all
19:56
Speaker 4: these background samurai that weren't the seven, and I don't
20:00
Speaker 4: know who is going to be who because I don't
20:02
Speaker 4: know what these seven look like yet, and so I'm like,
20:05
Speaker 4: is that going to be one? Oh he's kind of cool.
20:07
Speaker 4: Oh no, no, he's a jerk. He doesn't get to
20:09
Speaker 4: be be chosen. But no, I think I mean we
20:13
Speaker 4: scoff at the run time, but it is used very well.
20:18
Speaker 4: Like what we are given are a handful of villagers
20:22
Speaker 4: that we connect with, and each of the seven samurai
20:26
Speaker 4: has a bit of a story that influences their decisions,
20:31
Speaker 4: some more than others. But it's not it's not all
20:35
Speaker 4: walking from point A to point B. We are given
20:38
Speaker 4: a lot of nice background. So no, I think it
20:42
Speaker 4: it used its minutes wisely. And again I knew, again
20:50
Speaker 4: from a not folklore, but just knowing the story, that
20:53
Speaker 4: not all seven were going to survive, so I knew
20:56
Speaker 4: some would not make it. And I think I might
21:00
Speaker 4: have even seen that end shot of the mounds with
21:03
Speaker 4: the four swords, so I knew it was going to
21:05
Speaker 4: be like three or four, so I'm like, okay, it's
21:07
Speaker 4: more than half, so let's see how this goes. And
21:11
Speaker 4: that was just very engaging of like who's going to
21:13
Speaker 4: make it and why? And I had guesses, but I
21:17
Speaker 4: wasn't entirely accurate.
21:21
Speaker 2: Tristan in terms of the characterizations, did you think that
21:24
Speaker 2: Kurosawa handled the characterizations of the farmers of the villagers
21:30
Speaker 2: as adeptly as he did the samurai or is there
21:32
Speaker 2: a clear choice in who he wants to make distinct.
21:37
Speaker 3: Well, I think that with there being one hundred villagers,
21:40
Speaker 3: I think that there was one hundred and one villagers
21:43
Speaker 3: like you, you can only focus on a few like Rakishi,
21:48
Speaker 3: and I almost called him yahweh, Yohi, Yohi or Yohai
21:55
Speaker 3: something like them. I mean, those are clearly the people
21:59
Speaker 3: who win to go hire. The samurai got more attention.
22:04
Speaker 3: But one thing that I was really interested in reading
22:06
Speaker 3: about was that Karrasawa created a family tree for everybody
22:13
Speaker 3: in the village, like all one hundred extras, so that
22:17
Speaker 3: everybody would know whether they had speaking lines or not.
22:20
Speaker 3: Like you were related to this person, your cousins with
22:23
Speaker 3: this person, like these are your children. And he did
22:27
Speaker 3: even more than that for each samurai and like everybody,
22:31
Speaker 3: So everybody who had a speaking role had their favorite
22:35
Speaker 3: food picked out, their mannerisms, their way of speech, and
22:41
Speaker 3: everything of that nature. So like this was I have
22:44
Speaker 3: no idea if this is true, but I read that
22:46
Speaker 3: this was one of the first times in Japanese cinema
22:49
Speaker 3: that a director went and wrote that much backstory for
22:53
Speaker 3: speaking roles and even in even extras. So whether we
22:57
Speaker 3: see the village distinction or not, it's there, whether it's
23:01
Speaker 3: apparent to us, but it was definitely there for the
23:05
Speaker 3: villagers themselves to enhance their own characters. And I find
23:07
Speaker 3: that incredibly fascinating.
23:10
Speaker 2: I agree that is fascinating because it's definitely a degree
23:13
Speaker 2: of detail that I mean, it's very easy to say, oh, well,
23:17
Speaker 2: you know, did they do that sort of detail for
23:20
Speaker 2: this other epic, or you know, did everybody sorry, just
23:23
Speaker 2: all of our discussions about budget overruns, did they go
23:27
Speaker 2: to everybody in water World and give them their family
23:30
Speaker 2: tree ever since the world got covered in water or
23:33
Speaker 2: something like that. I don't think that Kevin Reynolds or
23:36
Speaker 2: Kevin Costner went to that amount of effort. But I
23:39
Speaker 2: think that it is interesting because it shows a very
23:44
Speaker 2: deliberate and thoughtful filmmaker at the very least, so that
23:47
Speaker 2: even if the film doesn't work for you on some level,
23:50
Speaker 2: you know that every choice was a very distinct and
23:54
Speaker 2: thoughtful one, and I think that very much comes across
23:57
Speaker 2: in the film without doubt. Now in terms of putting
24:03
Speaker 2: the film together, you know, we talked of the recuts earlier.
24:08
Speaker 2: When the feature was screened at the Guild Theater on
24:12
Speaker 2: November nineteenth in New York in nineteen fifty six, it
24:17
Speaker 2: was under the title just as a historical side note
24:20
Speaker 2: for everybody, it was known under the title The Magnificent Seven.
24:24
Speaker 2: It did not come to be known as The Seven
24:26
Speaker 2: Samurai until nineteen sixty when The Magnificent Seven was released,
24:30
Speaker 2: which is fun, but it was with an initial runtime
24:34
Speaker 2: of one hundred and fifty five minutes. Then it was
24:37
Speaker 2: edited down to one hundred and forty one minutes. Darren,
24:41
Speaker 2: I'll just ask the question point blank, because you mentioned
24:43
Speaker 2: the longer shots, the longer everything. Was there a point
24:47
Speaker 2: during this film where you wanted to pull out an
24:50
Speaker 2: editor's razor and say, okay, guys, we're going back to
24:54
Speaker 2: the booth and we're cutting this down.
24:58
Speaker 4: I would say, in some ways, yes, I feel like
25:03
Speaker 4: the amount that I need or I would cut get
25:07
Speaker 4: shorter as the movie progresses, meaning by the end we're
25:11
Speaker 4: moving along very quickly and the attacks are happening, and
25:15
Speaker 4: the planning is happening and all of that. So very
25:18
Speaker 4: little from the end, but at the very beginning, like
25:22
Speaker 4: we are spending a lot of time, you know, with
25:25
Speaker 4: the villagers getting to the other village looking at the samurai,
25:30
Speaker 4: and again I want to keep those pieces of the characters.
25:35
Speaker 4: But even the whole romantic subplot was a lot of
25:40
Speaker 4: screen time, a lot of screen time in this And
25:43
Speaker 4: so I'm actually almost curious to watch one of the
25:47
Speaker 4: edits because I think you could completely chop down this
25:52
Speaker 4: movie and it would still function beautifully. I don't think
25:56
Speaker 4: there's anything in the inherent length and scope of the
26:00
Speaker 4: detail that you would absolutely need for this to get
26:06
Speaker 4: the point across. And I think that's proven by its
26:09
Speaker 4: many remakes and homages, because that the story concept is
26:14
Speaker 4: still strong even without point A to point B walking.
26:19
Speaker 4: You know, we would be fine.
26:21
Speaker 2: Now you know, with those recuts which were shorter, there
26:25
Speaker 2: was a two hundred minute cut broadcast on PBS in
26:29
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy two and a nineteen eighty two re release
26:33
Speaker 2: that ran a two hundred and three minutes. So basically
26:38
Speaker 2: straightforward question to you, Tristan, was there any point during
26:40
Speaker 2: the film where you felt that the film could have
26:42
Speaker 2: gone into more detail or had longer takes of anything.
26:46
Speaker 3: Oh?
26:47
Speaker 2: Okay, that's a very definitive note, right There nothing else
26:51
Speaker 2: around that you didn't want to see any more of
26:52
Speaker 2: people plucking beards or anything like that.
26:55
Speaker 3: No, I'll be I'll be honest. I'm not giving this
26:59
Speaker 3: movie a five star just because of the length. And
27:03
Speaker 3: I know there are people who disagree with me. This
27:05
Speaker 3: is on so many greatest Movies of All Time lists,
27:10
Speaker 3: and I'm not arguing that, but this movie had zero
27:14
Speaker 3: business being this long. Could lord like, it had no
27:19
Speaker 3: business being this long?
27:20
Speaker 4: Well, and it was.
27:23
Speaker 3: Everything could be compressed, every single scene could be compressed.
27:26
Speaker 2: So let me ask you that question then, because this
27:29
Speaker 2: is a movie that was had a lukewarm reception when
27:31
Speaker 2: it first comes out. It's sort of you know, there
27:33
Speaker 2: was some positive negative mix there in the Western audiences well,
27:37
Speaker 2: majority negative, I believe in Japanese. But then it gets
27:43
Speaker 2: the esteem when it comes back, you know, steam rolls in.
27:46
Speaker 2: Now it's a classic. Now everybody loves it, nobody will
27:48
Speaker 2: approach it. Do you think now that it has found itself, Unfortunately,
27:54
Speaker 2: it's removed itself from any honest critical conversation because of
27:58
Speaker 2: its status.
27:58
Speaker 5: Do you think that people would be afraid to agree
28:01
Speaker 5: with you?
28:01
Speaker 3: I think absolutely. I think that's like for the people listening,
28:07
Speaker 3: if you feel attacked, we're not talking about.
28:09
Speaker 5: You, yes we are. Now we're totally attacking you intentional.
28:12
Speaker 3: I think that's that. I think that's true about any
28:16
Speaker 3: any older movie that's garnered a following or a cult following,
28:21
Speaker 3: or a ward esteems, anything that's on like a top
28:23
Speaker 3: one hundred list, whether that's of mainstream or you know,
28:29
Speaker 3: underground films. You you, you, it's so hard to have
28:33
Speaker 3: honest criticism with it because it's like when we're it's
28:37
Speaker 3: like talking about The Godfather. You know that that's something
28:39
Speaker 3: that I'll defend tooth and nail, and but you know,
28:43
Speaker 3: can I can I honestly say that I'm free of
28:48
Speaker 3: any kind of bias because it's such a cultural Touchdowe.
28:52
Speaker 3: I don't think I can. I mean, I can try
28:54
Speaker 3: to be as objective as possible, but it's I'm never
28:57
Speaker 3: going to be truly objective. And I think Seven Samurai
29:00
Speaker 3: is one of those movies because it is so embedded
29:03
Speaker 3: in the zeitgeist that you can't take it out. It's indelible.
29:06
Speaker 3: And so I think a lot of people would agree
29:11
Speaker 3: with me when it comes when it comes to length,
29:15
Speaker 3: because even in the fifties, you know, like three and
29:17
Speaker 3: a half hours good Lord.
29:19
Speaker 2: But the thing is, you built in the intermission so
29:21
Speaker 2: you can get a smoke break. You can deal with
29:23
Speaker 2: three and a half hours.
29:23
Speaker 4: Long get Her.
29:24
Speaker 3: But the thing is is that like I'm a big
29:26
Speaker 3: fan of Lord of the Rings. I love Ben Her,
29:28
Speaker 3: I love the Ten Commandments. You know, like I'm fine
29:31
Speaker 3: with long movies, but this movie itself did not need
29:35
Speaker 3: to be that long, because like when you look at
29:38
Speaker 3: something like the Biblical epic or something like Lord of
29:40
Speaker 3: the Rings, they have more than three locations, and it's
29:45
Speaker 3: this movie is not. I don't think you can qualify
29:47
Speaker 3: it as an epic, even if it has that sense
29:51
Speaker 3: of grandeur, It's not an epic because of so many
29:55
Speaker 3: things that are of a smaller scale. And this is
29:57
Speaker 3: not a criticism, like I'm not saying, look, oh man, no,
30:00
Speaker 3: those movies were epic and this one's not. No, I'm
30:03
Speaker 3: saying I'm using the word literally mm hm. And with
30:07
Speaker 3: this one, you have the village. I'm sorry, you have
30:10
Speaker 3: the town. You have the village, and you have the
30:15
Speaker 3: one set that they burned down, and that's it. Like
30:18
Speaker 3: those that's those are their locations. Again, not a knock,
30:23
Speaker 3: but you have so many situations where everything is just
30:27
Speaker 3: moving so slow, and the walking is slow, the talking
30:33
Speaker 3: is slow. Like there's so many times when I was
30:36
Speaker 3: watching and I'm like, wow, we're still in this scene.
30:38
Speaker 3: Oh my god, oh my gosh, Like okay, So like
30:41
Speaker 3: Kikuchio's drunken scene that went on probably three times longer
30:47
Speaker 3: than it should have, like we need to establish studies drunk,
30:51
Speaker 3: we need to establish studies a fool that he stole
30:55
Speaker 3: his name. End of scene. But then they started chasing
30:58
Speaker 3: him around and then the mu music changed to be
31:01
Speaker 3: like a Laurel and Hardy kind of bit. And it's
31:04
Speaker 3: just I'm not trying to pick on that scene, but
31:07
Speaker 3: I'm just trying to use it as an example, this
31:09
Speaker 3: happened a lot throughout the movie where it just kept
31:13
Speaker 3: going and going and going, and when you cut it
31:15
Speaker 3: down to its fundamental parts, it could be much simpler.
31:19
Speaker 3: And for some people that totally worked obviously, you know,
31:22
Speaker 3: like this guy has like one hundred percent on almost
31:26
Speaker 3: every rating list and everything like that. So this is
31:29
Speaker 3: just this is my Joe Schmoe opinion.
31:31
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, listen, I think it's completely valid to
31:35
Speaker 2: sit there and talk about how some movies they you know, no,
31:39
Speaker 2: but they wind up getting immune to criticism.
31:43
Speaker 5: You know.
31:43
Speaker 2: I always make reference to the fact that I felt
31:45
Speaker 2: so seen when a Lane on Seinfeld sorted hating she
31:50
Speaker 2: hated the English patient and everybody else loved it. And
31:53
Speaker 2: there's a scene where like she's like, oh, just die already,
31:55
Speaker 2: and the people you eyes like, oh shut up. He
31:57
Speaker 2: was like, no, you shut up because that was me
31:59
Speaker 2: with the English. So I totally vibe with what you're
32:02
Speaker 2: saying right here. Whether I agree with it for seven Samurai,
32:06
Speaker 2: you know, I'll save that for later. But you know, Darren,
32:10
Speaker 2: you know, when you do approach a film like this
32:14
Speaker 2: that you've never seen, there is that weight of the
32:18
Speaker 2: fact that it's regarded as a classic, one of the
32:20
Speaker 2: greatest films.
32:20
Speaker 5: Of all time.
32:23
Speaker 2: You know, did you feel that weight going into it?
32:25
Speaker 2: Did it make you put any distance between you and
32:29
Speaker 2: the film as you were experiencing it because you were
32:31
Speaker 2: waiting for something special to happen, or was it something
32:34
Speaker 2: where you just were able to compartmentalize and move it aside.
32:39
Speaker 4: I don't. I wouldn't say I was waiting for anything
32:41
Speaker 4: to happen. But I did go in with an expectation,
32:45
Speaker 4: like I expected it to be a good film, like
32:51
Speaker 4: movies that stay on everybody's hundred top hundred, you know,
32:56
Speaker 4: influence a whole generation of directors. Like I'm expecting something.
33:00
Speaker 4: Doesn't mean I'm gonna love it or it's gonna be
33:01
Speaker 4: my cup of tea or anything like that. But I
33:04
Speaker 4: did have some expectation. But I do agree with Tristan.
33:10
Speaker 4: I don't think the greatness of this movie comes from
33:14
Speaker 4: its epic length. You know, it could, and like I
33:19
Speaker 4: was saying before, the fact that many of the remakes
33:25
Speaker 4: and homages and stuff have done it in shorter time
33:29
Speaker 4: shows you can do it, even the cuts of this
33:33
Speaker 4: that are shorter. But I will say, you know that
33:39
Speaker 4: if you're gonna cut things out of this. There's definitely
33:44
Speaker 4: a core to keep. You know. I don't know for you, John,
33:48
Speaker 4: when you watched it the first time or even on rewatches,
33:51
Speaker 4: if there ever felt like a core of story that
33:54
Speaker 4: was like a must, like you know, Okay, kill your darlings,
33:58
Speaker 4: but don't touch this.
34:01
Speaker 5: You know.
34:01
Speaker 2: I can honestly say that with this film. This is
34:06
Speaker 2: where I differ with you guys about the length and
34:09
Speaker 2: the nature of it is I think that what works
34:12
Speaker 2: is this is one of those things where the whole
34:14
Speaker 2: is greater than some of its parts. You know, that's
34:16
Speaker 2: an old cliche, but this is one of those films
34:20
Speaker 2: where everything cohesively holds together in such a way that
34:24
Speaker 2: I feel like I've lived with these people.
34:27
Speaker 5: By the end of it.
34:28
Speaker 2: And that's what works specifically for me is what it
34:31
Speaker 2: unlocks is I feel that sense of you know, it's
34:36
Speaker 2: like a you know, it's like sometimes police officers describe
34:39
Speaker 2: their jobs as like ninety nine percent boredom and one
34:41
Speaker 2: percent sheer terror. And it's one of those things where
34:46
Speaker 2: I think that this film, with its length, with its
34:50
Speaker 2: sometimes plotting pace, fills you with the idea that like,
34:55
Speaker 2: this is why it's so easy to fall into a
34:57
Speaker 2: sense of complacency about danger or problems that you have
35:01
Speaker 2: to deal with.
35:01
Speaker 5: I can put it off. It's not today.
35:04
Speaker 2: These villagers are given a very difficult task of having
35:07
Speaker 2: to worry about what's coming as opposed to what's happening,
35:11
Speaker 2: and they have to invest a lot of time to
35:15
Speaker 2: get to what they know is inevitable. And I think
35:18
Speaker 2: that this is neither a good nor bad thing. But
35:21
Speaker 2: we definitely live in a media age, a film age
35:25
Speaker 2: where we've all gotten used to a more compressed way
35:28
Speaker 2: of telling the story, you know, whether it's Edgar Wright,
35:31
Speaker 2: smash cuts or something like that, where we can compress
35:36
Speaker 2: time through montage. Abstract film has become much more influential
35:42
Speaker 2: in the way people treat time spans in film. And
35:47
Speaker 2: I think that this is in a sense it is
35:51
Speaker 2: it does not feel like a documentary. That is not
35:55
Speaker 2: what I'm saying at all, but it does I think
35:57
Speaker 2: a great job of expressing how life is in terms
36:02
Speaker 2: of dealing with a situation like this and dealing with.
36:04
Speaker 5: A life like this.
36:06
Speaker 2: And you know, part of it, I think is also
36:10
Speaker 2: that it is giving so much characterization time to the samurai,
36:15
Speaker 2: so that you know, specifically those differences between them, but
36:20
Speaker 2: visually you know Kurasawa here is working with and I
36:25
Speaker 2: apologize for any name mispronunciation I make to anybody in
36:28
Speaker 2: the audience. Asakazu Nakai. He is a Japanese cinematographer, Award
36:37
Speaker 2: winner one in nineteen fifty one best Cinematography for Stray Dog.
36:43
Speaker 2: He was Academy Award nominated. We showed a fair amount
36:48
Speaker 2: of praise on Rashaman for the way it was shot. Tristan,
36:52
Speaker 2: did you get a similar visual sense from this or
36:56
Speaker 2: was there anything about this where you're like, eugh, this
36:59
Speaker 2: is the same guy that did row USh him.
37:00
Speaker 3: On there was there was one particular moment. Actually, no,
37:05
Speaker 3: let me talk about my favorite shot.
37:06
Speaker 5: First.
37:07
Speaker 3: It was the old man in the mill when they
37:13
Speaker 3: they came like the the mother and father with a
37:17
Speaker 3: kid come running to Mafuni's character character and says he's
37:21
Speaker 3: still in there. And then we get a shot of
37:24
Speaker 3: him from the back, like we see he's sitting down.
37:27
Speaker 3: We see him from the back. The sun's coming in
37:30
Speaker 3: and the mill is rotating, the wheel is rotating, and
37:33
Speaker 3: you see the sunbeams breaking and it's just corteous. It's
37:40
Speaker 3: just a phenomenal shot. And they don't linger on it,
37:43
Speaker 3: they don't stay on it, they don't like, they don't
37:46
Speaker 3: force you to admire it. It's just there and then
37:49
Speaker 3: it's gone. And there was more than a few shots
37:53
Speaker 3: like that, but that one in particular was the best
37:55
Speaker 3: in the movie and probably one of the best of
37:58
Speaker 3: from the decade. And uh, but there was a moment
38:03
Speaker 3: when I think it's towards the final battle or the
38:06
Speaker 3: second to last battle, where the camera is up high
38:10
Speaker 3: and you see almost the entire village, but it's zoomed
38:12
Speaker 3: in a little bit, which again Chrisawa using zoom lenses,
38:17
Speaker 3: telephoto lenses and multiple cameras in order to get the
38:20
Speaker 3: action to have that flow was pioneering in its time.
38:25
Speaker 3: And there was a moment when towards the lower part
38:29
Speaker 3: of the screen of the shot, uh, there are people
38:32
Speaker 3: on foot chasing somebody u through the village like they
38:37
Speaker 3: have spears and they're they're chasing them down and everything
38:39
Speaker 3: like that. And the guy bundles through a fence like
38:41
Speaker 3: breaks it down, and right as he right as it
38:45
Speaker 3: breaks down, some horses on the middle plane go from
38:50
Speaker 3: right to left and the people on the bottom are
38:52
Speaker 3: going from left to right and it's perfectly timed out,
38:56
Speaker 3: and the camera movement is like it perfectly goes from
39:00
Speaker 3: left to right and then from right to left, and
39:03
Speaker 3: I can't even imagine how many takes it took to
39:06
Speaker 3: execute that shot perfectly. And the movie is filled with that.
39:10
Speaker 3: And also during the training sequences, there were moments like
39:15
Speaker 3: there was a lot of camera movements where you had
39:18
Speaker 3: a lot of tracking shots, you had a lot of
39:20
Speaker 3: motion and movement, way more motion and movement than you
39:23
Speaker 3: would normally get in a nineteen fifties film. And there
39:27
Speaker 3: was one shot that really blew my mind when I
39:30
Speaker 3: think it was when they first encountered the muskets and
39:33
Speaker 3: Mafuni was kind of taunting them, and so like the
39:37
Speaker 3: camera follows him down into the gully and then he
39:41
Speaker 3: goes up into the fence taunts them. They shoot a
39:45
Speaker 3: musket at him, and he's like, oh crap. He turns
39:48
Speaker 3: around and runs back. He goes back up the gully
39:51
Speaker 3: and behind the lines, and the camera tracked him the
39:55
Speaker 3: entire time, going up and down to the side. And
39:59
Speaker 3: I have no how they did that in the fifties,
40:01
Speaker 3: And also so smoothly, you know, it's just this was
40:04
Speaker 3: very much a continued tradition, a much more refined version
40:09
Speaker 3: of what we saw in Raschamont.
40:11
Speaker 2: Darren, I'm do you disagree with Tristan it all or
40:13
Speaker 2: do you find that this was, you know, visually, very satisfying.
40:18
Speaker 4: No, I think. I mean we remarked a lot with
40:22
Speaker 4: Rassamont about making the characters stand out from such a
40:26
Speaker 4: busy background in the grove, and in this one. I mean,
40:31
Speaker 4: and we've talked about this with many movies, Like we're
40:33
Speaker 4: in the village, I know where every building in that
40:36
Speaker 4: village is. I know which side there's a map we
40:39
Speaker 4: take you. I know where the forest path that we're
40:43
Speaker 4: going to light with fire is. Like you know your setting,
40:47
Speaker 4: you know where the steaks are. They do such a
40:50
Speaker 4: good job with that. But even from the very beginning,
40:53
Speaker 4: I was struck by the silhouette shots of the band.
40:58
Speaker 4: It's the first time they in as they're riding along,
41:02
Speaker 4: and it was just gorgeous because the hills of the
41:05
Speaker 4: village are in darkness and just the tops of the
41:09
Speaker 4: horses of the riders peak above that line as it's
41:13
Speaker 4: as they're galloping through to terrorize the village the first time,
41:17
Speaker 4: and I was like, oh man, we're in you. That's
41:19
Speaker 4: like a little signature at the beginning saying you're in
41:22
Speaker 4: for retreat. You know, not that every shot was that cinematic,
41:26
Speaker 4: and I don't think it should have been, but it
41:29
Speaker 4: it just it worked. And then then the last battle
41:33
Speaker 4: starts and it's in the rain. I'm like, oh my gosh,
41:36
Speaker 4: so that's where the that's why your budget quadrupled again,
41:40
Speaker 4: because you shot your last fight in the rain and
41:43
Speaker 4: the mud, and that's making it even harder to shoot.
41:46
Speaker 4: But it worked and it was so interesting.
41:50
Speaker 2: It was very interesting. But do you think that the
41:53
Speaker 2: music was as interesting as the visuals in this film?
41:58
Speaker 2: The composer for the film was Fumio Hayasaka. Was there
42:04
Speaker 2: anything about the themes or the music that struck you,
42:09
Speaker 2: you know?
42:10
Speaker 5: In the film? Was there anything that stood out for you, Darren?
42:14
Speaker 4: I mean, it was a great score. It's nothing extremely
42:20
Speaker 4: memorable as far as themes, but I liked I will
42:25
Speaker 4: say when a score is like that, I tend to
42:29
Speaker 4: focus more on the balance of music to silence. And
42:33
Speaker 4: did they jam music everywhere or was it like, oh
42:38
Speaker 4: my gosh, I haven't heard music and it's the end
42:40
Speaker 4: of the first, and there's the intermission. It's like, no, no,
42:43
Speaker 4: it was a good balance. Is what I'm saying is
42:46
Speaker 4: there were lots of moments of contemplation of you know,
42:51
Speaker 4: preparing for the storm and the battle. You know, you
42:54
Speaker 4: felt all those weights. I will say there was a
42:59
Speaker 4: couple full of music cues in the romance thread where
43:03
Speaker 4: they're like in the flowers or things like that, where
43:06
Speaker 4: I was like, it felt a little out of place
43:08
Speaker 4: from the rest of the tone. And that's not necessarily
43:13
Speaker 4: a bad thing because that's the romance thread and that's
43:16
Speaker 4: the only part of that thread in the entire movie,
43:18
Speaker 4: but it did almost pull me out a little bit.
43:21
Speaker 4: I was like, Okay, you're frolicking in the fields. We
43:25
Speaker 4: get it. But no, overall, I think this movie was
43:30
Speaker 4: good at carrying the weight of the moment, whether with
43:33
Speaker 4: or without music, which I know kind of sounds like
43:37
Speaker 4: a non answer, but I'm sticking to it.
43:39
Speaker 2: Stick to it, Stick to it, Tristan, anything additional about
43:43
Speaker 2: the music that you noticed that you didn't notice?
43:45
Speaker 3: Ah, I thought it was interesting that. I mean, Darren,
43:48
Speaker 3: you talked about the romance themes and everything like that,
43:51
Speaker 3: but those two characters were the only two characters to
43:53
Speaker 3: ever get their own theme. And I thought that was
43:56
Speaker 3: interesting because like, that's kind of that kind of detail
44:00
Speaker 3: usually goes unnoticed, but it shows that they really wanted
44:04
Speaker 3: to kind of pump that up. And even though I
44:07
Speaker 3: feel like you could get rid of that storyline if
44:10
Speaker 3: you needed to save time, there were parts that I
44:12
Speaker 3: definitely enjoyed, like like when he when he was yelling
44:16
Speaker 3: at her when they first meet. He's yelling at her like,
44:18
Speaker 3: this is no time to pick flowers, and he's he's
44:20
Speaker 3: saying that as he's shaking flowers at her. Uh. This,
44:24
Speaker 3: Just those little moments really really made me smile and
44:27
Speaker 3: I laughed pretty hard at those. And I love the trope.
44:31
Speaker 3: I say this, I truly mean this, un ironically. I
44:34
Speaker 3: love the trope of movie movie makers getting the absolute
44:38
Speaker 3: most gorgeous woman available and then putting a putting a
44:43
Speaker 3: wig on her, and then the characters, the other characters
44:47
Speaker 3: going like, are you a boy? Are are you because
44:50
Speaker 3: you have short hair? Even though the most yeah, yeah,
44:54
Speaker 3: you have the most delicate and gorgeous feminine features, but
44:58
Speaker 3: surely clearly you were.
44:59
Speaker 2: A Unfortunately, you're just making me think of Zach Brannigan
45:04
Speaker 2: and Lee lemon of course in Futurama. So kids, if
45:09
Speaker 2: you haven't watched Futurama, that's an episode for you to
45:12
Speaker 2: check out, including the great line from Captain Brandigan. Oh Leo,
45:16
Speaker 2: I've never been so happy to be beaten up by
45:18
Speaker 2: a girl. Let's do it again sometime. So you know, Darren,
45:25
Speaker 2: I'm sorry you had something.
45:26
Speaker 4: No, I'm just saying, in the spirit of that discussion,
45:30
Speaker 4: there was a part when they go to attack the
45:34
Speaker 4: bandits on their turf. I was a little surprised that
45:38
Speaker 4: they weren't like, oh, there's innocent people in this Building's
45:42
Speaker 4: like nope, burn it all down. I'm like, oh, okay.
45:45
Speaker 4: And then it gets even you know, more connected with
45:48
Speaker 4: the man's wife. So that that caught me a little
45:52
Speaker 4: off guard, but obviously not out of character, just my
45:55
Speaker 4: modern sensibilities.
45:57
Speaker 5: Yes, modern sensibilities.
45:58
Speaker 4: Well though, granted, when they did out from the burning building,
46:01
Speaker 4: they did not struck down the women as most as
46:05
Speaker 4: they best they could, so they still set the building
46:08
Speaker 4: on fire. I'm just saying, you.
46:10
Speaker 2: Know, maybe maybe nowadays we don't set the building on fire,
46:13
Speaker 2: but in the fifteen hundreds we would have at least
46:15
Speaker 2: burned the building down. But you know, we did have
46:18
Speaker 2: some limits, I guess. So you know, as we sit
46:21
Speaker 2: here and we've talked about editing, music, length, everything like that,
46:25
Speaker 2: in the procedure of the film, I want to leave
46:26
Speaker 2: plenty of room for final thoughts. So you know, I'm
46:31
Speaker 2: going to kick it to you first, Tristan, with your
46:34
Speaker 2: final thoughts about seven Samurai and your rating, and please
46:38
Speaker 2: be mindful, history will judge what you say in these
46:41
Speaker 2: next moments, sir.
46:43
Speaker 3: I think this is a fantastic film, and there's a
46:46
Speaker 3: reason why it's on you know, the top one hundred
46:50
Speaker 3: list and in some top ten lists. I think the
46:53
Speaker 3: characterization is great. The different Samurai have unique and distinct personalities,
46:58
Speaker 3: and the direction is phenomenal and solid. The cinematography is
47:03
Speaker 3: next level. The micro editing is fantastic. If even if
47:10
Speaker 3: I have issues with the macro editing, this is a
47:15
Speaker 3: complete nitpick. But there was when we first get introduced
47:19
Speaker 3: to Shimada's Samurai and he's cutting his hair, like shaving
47:26
Speaker 3: his head and you know, cutting off his top knot
47:28
Speaker 3: and everything like that. There was no gnat sound besides
47:33
Speaker 3: wind rustling through the trees, and it was so frustrating
47:37
Speaker 3: to watch. It was so crazy to watch because like
47:40
Speaker 3: there was no body movement, there was no shaving noises,
47:42
Speaker 3: there was no footsteps, there was no nothing. It was
47:45
Speaker 3: just when through the trees and I thought I was
47:47
Speaker 3: going insane because I couldn't put my finger on it.
47:50
Speaker 3: At first, I was like, something's wrong. I'm really uncomfortable
47:54
Speaker 3: right now and I don't know why. Also, every child
47:58
Speaker 3: who was screaming in this film sound like an infant
48:01
Speaker 3: because I feel like they just used the same sound
48:03
Speaker 3: of it.
48:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, seven year old child. That was like really, and.
48:08
Speaker 2: When you look ount of money in your production, you
48:10
Speaker 2: can only use the same ad R sound, but so
48:13
Speaker 2: many times.
48:14
Speaker 4: That the same bullet shot from the musket pitch.
48:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, but these are these are nitpicks. I mean like,
48:22
Speaker 3: like I said, I can't give this a five stars
48:24
Speaker 3: because you could have easily easily lost an hour and
48:29
Speaker 3: even kept the same structure. So I'm giving this a
48:33
Speaker 3: four out of five. Like this is this is a
48:36
Speaker 3: great film. This is a great film, and I'm not
48:39
Speaker 3: arguing with anyone who gives it five.
48:41
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of arguing with people who give it different ratings, Darren,
48:44
Speaker 2: where are you going to come in and why is
48:46
Speaker 2: it a one?
48:48
Speaker 4: Oh geez, so I would never I'm giving get a
48:51
Speaker 4: seven out of seven. No, Lemers don't go up that high.
48:56
Speaker 4: Oh no, this was a really fun film. I am
48:59
Speaker 4: going to give it a five, I think for its
49:02
Speaker 4: cultural significance, for its edge of parity, really just on
49:08
Speaker 4: how much it's propagated, not just a story type, but
49:13
Speaker 4: the fact that so many elements are lifted. It's so universal.
49:18
Speaker 4: I will say in the runtime, I agree it is long,
49:23
Speaker 4: but I'm giving it a little bit of a pass,
49:26
Speaker 4: just because I know there are other edits, and I'm
49:29
Speaker 4: sure if I watch some of the other edits that
49:32
Speaker 4: part would be more palatable. So it's not enough to
49:35
Speaker 4: knock a star for me, And that's fine. But this
49:39
Speaker 4: is just a fun film.
49:42
Speaker 5: You know.
49:42
Speaker 4: I love nighttime shots where you can see things. I'm
49:46
Speaker 4: a simple man. It's easy to please me. And you know,
49:51
Speaker 4: when they lit the forest corridor at night, I'm like, oh,
49:53
Speaker 4: thank you, cinematographer, so I can see the horses coming
49:57
Speaker 4: towards us or the people around the corner. But no,
50:01
Speaker 4: it just you can see why this movie is so
50:04
Speaker 4: beloved and why it's taught in film school to look
50:09
Speaker 4: at pacing, to look at handling a cast of seven leads.
50:13
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously there's leads in the Villagers, but seven Samurai,
50:17
Speaker 4: and we could I could look at a list and
50:20
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, that's the guy with the scar, who's
50:23
Speaker 4: the and I could list off a dozen things about him,
50:26
Speaker 4: like that's that's impressive because there's ensemble movies where you
50:32
Speaker 4: can't and you got the top, you could tell who
50:34
Speaker 4: the three big actors are, and those are the ones
50:36
Speaker 4: that get the time and you know about them, and
50:40
Speaker 4: then the others just don't. So five Samurai for me,
50:47
Speaker 4: so I'll ask for twenty because I know you'll get
50:49
Speaker 4: me five.
50:50
Speaker 2: So we'll move on from Darren's passive aggressive swipe at
50:55
Speaker 2: the Star Trek films. Obviously when he talks about three
50:58
Speaker 2: leads even though it's an ensemble wink wink, nuds nuds.
51:01
Speaker 2: We get you there. So I'm gonna also give it
51:05
Speaker 2: a five. This movie impacted me greatly many years ago.
51:09
Speaker 2: I'm probably at the point where I can't be completely honest.
51:15
Speaker 2: We all have those films where even if you could
51:17
Speaker 2: talk me down from the five, I'd never move from
51:19
Speaker 2: the five. And it's because this is one of those
51:23
Speaker 2: films where it is so philosophically rich that, like I
51:28
Speaker 2: said earlier, you know, sometimes the hole is greater than
51:30
Speaker 2: the sum of its parts. There might be other movies
51:32
Speaker 2: that are a little bit indulgent in terms of length,
51:34
Speaker 2: and I'll harp on them for it, but it's you know,
51:38
Speaker 2: the other comparison I would draw would be like Apocalypse Now,
51:41
Speaker 2: where you know, for instance, the Reducs cut, that's indulgent,
51:45
Speaker 2: it's too long, but I still love it anyway because
51:49
Speaker 2: what it's exploring. I'm like, I don't mind soaking a
51:51
Speaker 2: little bit in this colgone bathwater here, That's fine. And
51:55
Speaker 2: when I have a film that decades ago gave me
51:58
Speaker 2: a line that I turned two when it gets really
52:01
Speaker 2: stressful at work or at home, which is, uh, you know,
52:05
Speaker 2: the old man character saying, what's the use of worrying
52:08
Speaker 2: about your beard when your head's about to be taken?
52:11
Speaker 2: And that is that has become like an absolute mantra
52:16
Speaker 2: by which I live my life. When it gets I
52:18
Speaker 2: really dout.
52:19
Speaker 3: Note of that too. That's probably my favorite line in
52:21
Speaker 3: the entire movie.
52:22
Speaker 2: Just absolutely like the film deserves a five simply for
52:26
Speaker 2: that line basically in my book, because it really hits
52:30
Speaker 2: it's such a simple line. It's like the wild Bunch.
52:33
Speaker 2: Each of us dreams of being a child again, even
52:35
Speaker 2: the worst of us, perhaps the worst most of all.
52:37
Speaker 2: I'm like, once I hear that line, I'm like, Okay,
52:39
Speaker 2: that's a That's a perfect film as far as I'm concerned,
52:41
Speaker 2: because I'm never gonna can't get rid of that dream
52:44
Speaker 2: state that you put me in, so that it is
52:46
Speaker 2: a five for me. And I know I warned everybody
52:49
Speaker 2: as we were going through the House of Kirasawa, it's
52:51
Speaker 2: gonna be hard to talk me out this five ledge,
52:53
Speaker 2: But maybe next week it's possible. Darren, what is it
52:57
Speaker 2: that we're going to be talking about next week?
52:59
Speaker 3: Here?
53:00
Speaker 4: Next week we're covering the Hidden Fortress from nineteen fifty eight.
53:04
Speaker 4: Little known movie in seventy seven might have referenced that
53:08
Speaker 4: once or twice.
53:09
Speaker 1: Next on house Lights, Join the Revolution, Join the Nerd Party.