The National Film Theater in London is currently presenting a two-month-long festival featuring the works of Akira Kurosawa. A number of other events are taking place in conjunction with the retrospective, including the publication of this excellent monograph on what is perhaps the director's finest film.
Finest though it may be, "Seven Samurai" is also one of the director's critically most neglected. In stressing this fact, Joan Mellen speaks of it being the least written about and the most misunderstood of Kurosawa's films, both abroad and in Japan.
Abroad, an infatuation with "theory" and an aversion to history "with its skepticism regarding objective truth" has led younger contemporary critics "to pretend that Kurosawa's masterpiece is in fact one of his lesser works." At the same time, the critic's political agenda often runs counter to the picture. Noel Burch, for example, refuses to discuss the film. That Kurosawa has not depicted "the rebellion of the oppressed," says Burch, "marks him as 'simplistic,' and that is enough to discount 'Seven Samurai' for Burch, no matter that the film is unique in its depiction of the injustices of class society."