Ring the Alarm

I chose to pick a sequence of shots from Seven Samurai directed by Akira Kurosawa. The location is outside of the old man’s hut in the Rikichi village. It occurs after the samurai have confronted the old man regarding the unpleasant welcome of the villagers. The alarm sounds and the men rush outside of the hut to see what is going on. First there is a long shot of a group of men running from the hut. In the front of the group six of the samurai lead the way. Then there is a series of medium close-ups of Kuyzo, Heihachi, Shichiroji, Gorobei, Kambei, and Katsushiro, each running to the village center.

Altogether, this sequence lasts about six seconds long (1:11:16 to 1: 11:22). The music is suspenseful and triumphant. The screaming of the villagers is heard; “please samurai, please” flashes on the screen. Each shot in the sequence lasts from half a second to one second. Together these incite feelings of excitement in the viewer, thus building up a sense of action. From the time of the alarm sounding, we believe that some intense battle is about to unfold. Kurosawa leads us on, using the sequence to make us fall into a state of false alarm as well. The alarm catches us off guard along with the men. It seems too early for a fight with the bandits to occur as we have just been introduced to the major characters. Of course we find in the next few shots that it was Kikuchiyo who sounded the alarm to frighten the villagers as payback for not properly welcoming the samurai.

Seven Samurai