So many films and directors owe so much to Akira Kurosawa. His 1954 film
Seven Samurai has been described as possible the most influential film ever mad. Not only was there a direct remake, but many of his samurai films were made into western films, or inspired films like
Star Wars. Ebert speculates that it might have started the practice of introducing the main hero of the movie by showing him undertaking a mission unrelated to the plot. Others say it is the first film to use the now-common plot device of recruiting a bunch of different characters into a team to accomplish a common goal. These sound like big, vague statements, but that is because there are so many films that use these different things that it's difficult to point to just one or two as examples! I started this movie pretty late under the incorrect notion that it was only like, two and half hours long (which IMDB mobile showed). When I booted up my Blu-ray and started Netflix, I was told it was three and a half. Yikes. So it's late, and daylight savings whatever, so it's even later, and I'm just starting my post about about 3:00am. Forgive any shortness, wrongness, or vagueness, please. :)
