Film
Please note: This was screened in June 2025
Rice farmers hire a band of samurai to defend them against marauding bandits in Akira Kurosawa’s influential epic, a touchstone for action movies ever since.
Strongly influenced by the poetic westerns of John Ford, Kurosawa’s story of farmers recruiting a motley troupe of samurai to help them fend off bandits in turn had a huge impact on subsequent westerns and action films.
The film expertly sustains the suspense over its over 3 hour duration, instilling the story with an almost Shakespearian grandeur.