h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is my second-favourite film of all time. If I spoke Japanese, it would be my favourite, but the subtitles get a little wearing after three hours...

Something I expected would rate a mention in the article: "The Magnificent Seven" (a famous "spagetti western") lifted its plot in its entirety from "the Seven Samuri", as did "Battle Beyond the Stars"...

All in all, three hours of black-and-white subtitled film I would recommend to anyone!

Oh, btw, if you were surprised that "Star Wars" started out as a Kurosawa plot, it might also surprise you to know that Bruce Willis has got in on the act too; "Last Man Standing" was essentially a remake of the Kurosawa classic, "Yojimbo". Both films are well worth watching, but personally I preferred Yojimbo...

I love this film, but you need a whole afternoon or evening when you can guarantee to be undisturbed - it needs a lot of concentration.

I've tried recommending it, but when I mention how long it is, how black and white it is, and how Japanese it is, people get put off. It's their loss!

Bravo, Scoop! A great Entry for as great film!

Anyone put off by black and white and subtitles deserves to miss out on gems like 'Seven Samurai', which is a masterpiece. Kurosawa was a genius; and it's a real shame that he died before he could shoot the sequel to his epic 'Ran'... 'Also Ran'.

Ahem.

JTG

I hate to be pedantic but Magnificent Seven wasn't a spaghetti, that was an all-American John Sturges production. Right about Battle Beyond... though, which recruited Robert Vaughn as one of the space mercenaries (a nice touch) and named the aliens under attack the Akira...

Then again, I'm virtually sure the Hammer movie Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires was in part inspired by Seven Samurai (small band of kungfu fighters defend remote village from attack by seven vampire warriors and their zombie army).

Mifune and Kimura are good in the film but I've always thought Chiaki Minoru was equally good as Heihachi, and so was the guy in the James Coburn part... you know... the ace swordsman...

Fair enough; apologies for the spaghetti comment...

About 11 years ago I was working on a script for "Snow White and the Seven Samurai"... Sadly, a scan of IMDB last year showed me that someone else has used the title since then.

...but nobody's used "Seven Brides for Seven Samauri" yet...

Thanks for all the conglatulatory comments everyone .
Every major performance in this film is of a high quality and had I had room to bore people to death with how much I love each and every character believe me I would have .
However this was meant for people who haven't seen the film but want to know a little something about it. I really hope it inspires people to watch it. As for the difficulty in getting people to watch it just don't tell people its b+w subtitled and long. I recently showed it to my 10 yr old cousin while babysitting and he was rapt throughout (a good tip for babysitters that one). That is one of the most stunning examples of how timelessly brilliant the film is. If a boy raised in the world of pokemon and wwf's fast paced action can sit through and love this epic it has to be one of the most universally amazing pieces of film making in history.
Thanks again and did anyone read the Kurosawa article in today's guardian?

Yes indeed. My first exposure to Kurosawa was when Alex Cox (author of the piece) chose Yojimbo for inclusion in the BBC's Moviedrome in 1990. I suspect that there's a lot of truth to the suggestion that Kurosawa is popular in the west largely because he makes western-style films (sort of a pun there I suppose).