Now, despite what I may proclaim haphazardly about El Topo being as close to spiritual enlightenment as anything I have ever seen in this world or the next, know that it is only because I do believe that Alejandro is a God amongst mortal men.
In reality, Akira Kurosawa's MONUMENTAL film "The Seven Samurai" is, and forever will be, the greatest film produced by any mortal man (see? see?). Yes, i do believe that Kurosawa has the ever-so-keen "eye of the beholder" perceptions of the world around him, and he pulls out all the stops in the 3 hour plus statue of celluloid perfection to bring you a movie that will forever burn brightly, no matter how dense the shit storm is, and my friends, it is pretty fucking thick.
When i describe a film as "whole", what I mean is that every shot, from one side of the screen to the other, something is happening, as a true piece of art is suppose to present to the audience.
In every shot of this film, from one corner to the opposite, and even from one depth to the next, action is taking place, people are talking or doing something, or a horizon shot of a band of horse-clad bandits rides across the hills is taking place, and the fact of the matter is--you can see the entire group of bandits in the shot.
Perception is Kurosawa's middle name. He is the almighty mighty knowing Holy Meca of a man in the realm of perception. He knows the true art of every depth of vision and he makes them a true piece of the film, not something that lays empty in every shot. 3-D would be a good way to describe how "The Seven Samurai" looks. Don't view every shot as a flat image, but as a cube, there is action happening from 12 inches in front of the camera to 20 feet from it. There is so much going on in every shot that im curious to how he does it without making it a cluddered mess to look at, and it is obvious he is just that good at what he does.
On to my favorite part of this film, its lead actor (and my favorite), Toshiro Mifune. He is the most entertaining actor I have ever seen (the only thing to even come close to him would be Daniel Day-Lewis or...well Daniel Day-Lewis pretty much is it) and much live the way Kurosawa directs, Mifune acts. He is a very deeply intrisic man who one moment can be jumping off the ground excited to hunched down and snarling. He is intimidating, cruel, disillusioned, but also endearing, proud and commanding. A force that has certainly resonated a certain perfection in it's own right.
Everything about this movie has been crafted from the finest the world has to offer, from the actors to the action, the Director of Photography (a genius in his own right, more on him later im sure) to the horse wrangler and from the mud and the artificial rain, this movie has everything anyone will ever need in reality, but for everything else there is always El Topo.
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