I guess for myself, Seven Samurai is simply much more "human" than any film like it. Similar to Kurosawa's other films (that i have seen thus far), what remains embedded in my mind, are the overtly distinguishable faces of many of the peasants, and certainly of the samurai. Each face represents adequately, the personality and circumstance (age and life experience) of each individual. It seems very intentional, and it locks me into the psychology of the film, as much or more than any style or technique of an "actor". There is very little acting to do, it seems, if your face already tells a story in and of itself. Kurosawa was obviously keen to this idea or understanding - and he was a fucking master of executing it in his films and through his cast.
In particular, you would never know Mifune (below) from "Drunken Angel", as the same Mifune in "Seven Samurai".
Though Shimura is always noticeable in each of his roles for Kurosawa, his range of emotions, his confidence or lack of, and his "character" is highly defined by his facial features. Incredible!
This is, I believe, a core foundation for Kurosawa's international acclaim as a master filmmaker.
This film also seemed barbaric to me, in it's violence....somehow more severe and disturbing than today's animated bloody gore of Tarantino or Scorsese. It was not sensationalized, which made it feel more realistic somehow. Also, you could feel the desperation of the peasants in their need to kill in order to survive. I somehow empathized with that...and felt very disturbed.
Certainly, another core foundation of Kurosawa's films is the exploration of our hypocrisies as human beings, usually expressed and brought to light from the those at the bottom of society...
"Peasants are stingy, foxy, blubbering, mean, stupid and murderous! God damn! That's what they are! But then, who made them such beasts? You did! You samurai did it! You burn their villages! Destroy their farms! Steal their food! Force them to labor! Take their women! And kill them if they resist! So what should peasants do?"
Very few writers/directors are willing to ask these kinds of questions, that ultimately and intimately confront the viewer him/herself of their own paradox in which they live - right in the middle of a three and a half hour long film!
Their shame is our own. Yet, Kurosawa will not allow us to walk away from the film, without offering the possibility of redemption through the song, dance, and celebration of Spring, despite the cost.
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