Possibly the least daunting, 207-minute foreign-language film ever made, this rousing adventure from Japanese director Akira Kurosawa follows a band of samurai defending a besieged peasant village with the lean precision of a classic Hollywood Western. No wonder it would be remade as 1960’s The Magnificent Seven. For all its thrills, the picture also offers a bracing statement on violence, victimhood and vengeance – never more so than with the climactic battle in a rain storm, during which even the victors sink in the thickening mud.
