Seven Samurai DVD

• Additional Details
• Format: DVD
• Rating: Not Rated
• Number of Discs: 3
• Run Time: 207 Minutes
• Region: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen
• Language: Japanese
• Studio: Criterion Collection
• DVD Release Date: September 5, 2006
• Closed Captioning: No
• Subtitles: English
• Audio: JAPANESE: Dolby Digital Mono
• Genre: Foreign
• Color: Black & White
• Includes:
  · Two Audio Commentaries: One by Film Scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, · Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie; and one by Japanese-film expert Michael Jeck.
  · Theatrical Trailers and Teaser
  · Gallery of Rare Posters and Behind-The-Scenes and Production Stills
  · Documentary: The Making of Seven Samurai, As Part of the To ho Masterworks Series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create (50 Minutes)
  · My Life in Cinema, A Two-Hour Video Conversation between Akira Kurosawa and Nagisa Oshima from 1993, Produced by the Directors Guild of Japan.
  · Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences, a new documentary looking at the samurai traditions and films that impacted Kurosawa's masterpiece
  · Essay’s by Kenneth Turan, Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Sliver, and Stuart Galbraith IV
• Release Date: 1954

Hailed as the greatest film in the history of Japanese cinema, Seven Samurai is director Akira Kurosawa's undisputed masterpiece. Arguably the greatest of all jidai-gecki (or historical swordplay films), Kurosawa's classic 1954 action drama has never been surpassed in terms of sheer power of emotion, kinetic energy, and dynamic character development. The story is set during the civil unrest of 16th-century Japan, as the cowering residents of a small farming village are seeking protection against seasonal attacks by a band of marauding bandits. Offering mere handfuls of rice as payment, they hire seven unemployed "ronin" (masterless samurai), including a boastful swordsman (Toshiro Mifune) who is actually a peasant farmer's son, desperately seeking glory, acceptance, and revenge against those who destroyed his family. Led by the calmly strategic Kambei (Takashi Shimura, star of Kurosawa's previous classic, Ikiru), the samurai form mutual bonds of honor and respect, but remain distant from the villagers, knowing that their assignment may prove to be fatal.