Customer Reviews

Seven Samurai (BFI Film Classics)

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It has been years since I have seen "The Seven Samurai," a movie I greatly admire. Reading Mellen's book brought back all the things I love about that film.

Mellen goes into the origins of the film, into Kurosawa's script and his ideas about history. She discusses how the different characters represent aspects of the samurai class. Her analysis of the last scene, where the surviving samurai leave the village, is quite powerful and accurate.

If the book has a flaw, it is that Mellen devotes a bit of time to bashing those writers who are critical of "The Seven Samurai." If they can't appreciate Kurosawa's film, that is punishment enough.

If you enjoy "The Seven Samurai" this book will amplify your understanding of that film and thus increase your enjoyment when you watch the movie again.

In this book, Joan Mellen takes a look at the epic Japanese film "Seven Samurai," devoting most of the 75-ish pages to discussing several subliminal (and sometimes more overt) themes presented in Kurosawa's definitive film though both a quick background in Japanese history, from the time the movie is set in as well as from when the movie was made, which sets up an interesting parallel she discusses very well. There are also many instances where she discusses how the set-up of particular shots serve to reinforce the themes.

Most of this will sound familiar to owners of Criterion Collection's three-DVD set of "Seven Samurai," as Mellen was one of the commentators in the "Editor's Roundtable" commentary, with roughly one-quarter of the movie under her purview. She expands on that commentary here, also referencing other films of Kurosawa's as well as other filmmakers. Like one of the previous reviewers, occassionally these references threw me for a loop, because outside of "Seven Samurai" I have very little no knowledge of Japanese or classic (i.e. pre-WWII) films. At times like this, the uneducated reader will have to take the comparison at face value, but I suspect readers more learned in cinema than I will appreciate them.

The major problem I had with the book was a 15-page section (doesn't sound like much until you realize that's 20% of the book) that discussed Kurosawa's critics and his films as compared to the Western genre. Mellen rails against several people who were/are critical of Kurosawa, occassionally turning into a first-person narrative. This totally caught me off-guard and represented a dramatic change in tone from insightful/educational to angry/preachy. The mood continues with a lopsided discussion of the Western genre that seems to dismiss it as viable cinema (though I'm sure that was not Mellen's intent) without pointing out any of the good qualities of the genre. This section left me with a sour taste in my mouth, because it occurs at the end of the book, with three pages afterward devoted to the ending of "Seven Samurai" returning to the style of the first 55 or so pages.

All in all, this book is an insightful read for the movie buff or the fan of "Seven Samurai," but beware of the random rant near the end that passes on little insight.

Arguably the best movie in the history of Japanese cinema, Seven Samurai displays film maker Akira Kurosawa at his height. At least according to some. According to others, the movie was a minor film in his catalogue. According to others still, Kurosawa just wasn't so great to begin with.

What's going on? Joan Mellen provides a bit of the answer in this contribution to the BFI library, in which she, among other things, examines both Seven Samurai and its noted creator against the backdrop of Japanese cinema and sometimes through the lens of Kurosawa's (inferior) critics. One comes away with a better appreciation of the movie.

Also, Mellen examines the themes present, subtly or not so subtly, throughout the movie. This particular section of the monograph is especially interesting. Such themes, not surprisingly given the subject matter of Seven Samurai, include class and cultural distinctions between the samurai and the peasants that hire them, male friendship, and sacrifice versus selfishness.

But Mellen spends far too much time analyzing Kurosawa through the lens of Soviet film maker Sergei Eisenstein. Without knowing much at all of Eisenstein, I will take Mellen at her word at the debt owed. But that is the problem. Mellen spends so much time with the comparison that, if one is unfamiliar with Eisenstein to begin with, one's appreciation of this particular book is diminished considerably. Ok, tell me that I should know what I am talking about to begin with. Tell me that I should view this as an opportunity to educate myself more about an important film maker. Fine. Maybe those are good points. But they do not detract from my position that, without such familiarity to begin with, one's appreciation of this book is lessened. And there is the counter-argument that a BFI book on a particular movie should stand on its own, without detailed knowledge of someone else's work.

Mellen also strikes out when she compares Seven Samurai with American Westerns, especially The Magnificent Seven. Mellen simply uses Japanese culture and the themes in Seven Samurai as the template and thereby deems the American Westerns inferior by comparison. Well of course they are, if you load the deck with pre-set standards tilted to a particular conclusion to begin with.

This book adds something to the understanding of Seven Samurai and is worthwhile on those grounds. Just be aware you will be getting a mixed bag of goods.

While Joan Mellen tries to be very complete, with lots of information on the cultural background, use of sound, light and stories about the cast, the book barely touches the surface of the movie. Of course, with less than 80 pages, there is only so much you can do. Also, the information is not well ordered, bouncing about a lot. Some of the space is kind of wasted on attacking people who, themselves, attacked Kurosawa and his greatest film.
A great little book, but I bet there are larger, more massive tomes about the subject.