Rare is the three hour film that flies by and makes you wish for more.
It’s a film that inspired westerns, and with good reason. It’s an elegy for the time of samurai as the age of guns comes into focus. A technological shift in the weapons of war that disrupts society, giving a group of bandits an edge against the team of (mostly) battle hardened samurai hired by the village to defend it. Much like The Searchers, it ends on a note that some people are allowed to stay and live out their lives in peace, but others are warriors forced to wander until their help is asked for.
It’s a film with tremendous heart, and an electric performance by Toshiro Mifune as Kikuchiyo. He begins as an annoying samurai wannabe, but develops over the course of the film into a trusted ally and protector of the oppressed.
The fight scenes are also staged to be as brutal as possible, in the sense that they avoid the balletic sword play of some samurai tales and feature swift, violent, scrambling combat. There’s one scene in particular with rain and mud and chaos that plays to the notion that these samurai are strong warriors, but they’re not superhuman.
They can bleed. They can fall. They can die. Their victories come at a cost. They don’t get shawarma—they stand over the graves of their comrades.
This Builds Character 
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