A few villagers travel to local cities to hire samurai. Their task at first appears impossible, but they manage to recruit middle-aged sage Kambei (Takashi Shimura) who enjoys the challenge. His reputation allows the recruitment of others: manchild Katsushiro (Isao Kimura), wildman Kikuchiyo (Toshirô Mifune); archer Gorobei (Yoshio Inaba); portly Shichiroji (Daisuke Katô); master fencer Kyozo (Seiji Miyaguchi); and unskilled but cheerful Heihachi (Minoru Chiaki).
The samurai arrive in the farm village and improve the defenses. They build a fence, flood one of the entrances, and drill the male villagers into soldiers. However, strife arises when farmer Manzo (Kamatari Fujiwara) becomes paranoid that his comely daughter Shino (Keiko Tsushima) will be seduced by a samurai. Because it is a movie, this comes to pass.
The other dubious subplot involves "bachelor" farmer Rikichi. He serves as guide for a samurai assault on a vulnerable bandit stronghold. There, Rikichi encounters his estranged wife, who is working as a prostitute. Tragedy results.
The bandits repeatedly asssault the now well-defended village. The bandits are gradually decimated, but at the cost of several villagers and samurai.
How others will see it. The Seven Samurai has long been generally regarded as Kirosawa's masterpiece. In the West, it received two Oscar nominations and three BAFTA nods. It won Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Time has been more than kind to the movie. Of the many Kurosawa films, The Seven Samurai has by far the greatest number of votes (140K) and the highest user rating (8.8) at imdb.com. Rashomon is a distant second. It is true that women over 45 give it a considerably lower user rating of 7.0, possibly because of the prostitute and deflowering subplots mentioned above, but also because four of the samurai (and some key villagers) die during battles.
How I felt about it. I admit it. I have always preferred Throne of Blood. It was the first Kurosawa film I saw, and have always expected another to surpass it, but none ever did. Perhaps Throne of Blood is better because it has more Mifune, or because the plot has fewer holes than The Seven Samurai.
These consist mostly of strange decisions by Kambei. For example, he "lets in" all the remaining bandits for the final battle, who promptly kill two samurai and several villagers. Why not stick with the original plan of letting in one or two at a time? Time is on the side of the village, which has food and momentum on its side.
We are also amazed at the good timing of Kikuchiyo, whose secret one-person raid of the bandits coincides with the bandit leader (Shinpei Takagi) shooting two would-be deserters. Kikuchiyo then steals their clothing, encounters a bandit alone with one of the two remaining guns, and is able to impersonate a bandit (!) until he can take the weapon.
Most remarkable of all, though, is the stupidity of the bandit leader, who keeps trying to take the well defended and impoverished village when there are surely others that can be taken more easily.
Despite the problems with the plot, though, Kurosawa's mastery as a director overcomes all. We can even forgive Katsushiro beaming at Kyozo as if he wants to become his love slave.