The Seven Samurai tops most people's list of "Greatest Foreign Film of All Time", and it was the crown jewel of the long collaboration between Director Akira Kurosawa and composer Fumio Hayasaka. Hayasaka would die from tuberculosis the following year (1955) at the age of 41. You really have to wonder what music he would have composed had he lived. In particular, it's easy to speculate on a Hayasaka score to Kurosawa's Ran.
It was at the time the most expensive film ever made in Japan but was very financially successful in Japan, out grossing Godzilla. It was 207 minutes long (with a 5 minute intermission - also part of the musical score). 50 minutes were edited out to better fit American's attention span. It was released in America with the title The Magnificent Seven - the title was changed back in 1960 with the release of the American version of that film.
Not sure I can bring myself to see the Seven Samurai. I went to see Kagemusha in Boston when it came out to rave reviews, and left before the end of the movie.
ReplyDeleteGlad you have music class on Sundays again. Always learning something here.
The movie is very worth it. Best to watch it on a decent tv with the ability to rewind, pause and such.
ReplyDeleteIt is excellent.
But it is a foreign film with subtitles and coming from an, at that time, still kind of alien nation.
But... It's excellent.
Or go watch the original "The Magnificent Seven" with also an outstanding score. One that sticks to, well, the ears and is a good earworm.
Kurosawa's later epic "Ran" is my favorite of his films. In color, a retelling of Macbeth in Japanese setting, a feudal lord with 3 sons and the utter ruin that ensues. Beautiful photography, a masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteSeven Samurai is my second favorite of all of Kurosawa's films.
ReplyDeleteOf them all, Ikuru hits me the hardest, and is the one I most want to show others who haven't seen it.
Kurt