Seven Samurai
What more can be said about the mother of all samurai films? An unflinching classic in which the inhabitants of a poor farming hamlet enlist the help of seven samurai to stop the annual looting.
Chaos and anarchy reign in sixteenth-century Japan. A village of rice farmers is plagued by plundering bandits. They enlist the help of seven ronin, samurai without masters, to protect the village.
Kurosawa builds the tension beautifully and slowly works towards the classic finale in the pouring rain; a scene whose influence is evident in the battles in Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy. The epic film had a huge impact on the westerns of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah. John Sturges made an American remake under the title The Magnificent Seven.