Saturday, 8 March 2014

Shichinin no Samurai

(1954)

RATING:100%
FORMAT:DVD

[Seven Samurai]

Very good action movie that, despite its length, manages to grip from first to last.

The slow detailing of the relationships within and between the samurai group allows them to come across as proper dramatic archetypes: The Inexperienced; the Tactician; the Clown; the Master Swordsman; etc. These characters are fleshed out in acting performances that are as excellent as the rarely bettered action is spectacular.

Director Akira KUROSAWA is here promoting the kith and kinship ties of rural life while simultaneously demonstrating the small mindedness, fear and superstition of same. As with any half decent drama, there is an ever present tension between what is good in people and what is bad. The villains are merely shown as an undifferentiated mass; serving only as the initial reason for the drama and to bring out the differing characters of everyone else. Strangely, this makes the real dramatic conflict here one between the villagers and their ostensible samurai guardians, rather more than merely good versus evil.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.