Samurai: A Tale as Old

¶ … Samurai: A tale as old as time

Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai follows the story of peasants, who in a fit of desperation, seek to hire samurai for protection against thieves and bandits that have been attacking their village. Though they do not have much to offer, they give what they can, and in turn are rewarded with military training and protection from the bandits. Seven Samurai has been regarded as one of the most influential films ever made, brilliantly narrating the story of a complex caste and warrior system. Seven Samurai, with its criticism of caste systems and wandering warriors, points out many issues that are still problematic around the world to this day.

Set in feudal Japan during the Warring States Period, which took place around 1587 or 1588, Seven Samurai explores the devastation incurred by the peasants in a small village and subsequent lives of ronin, or masterless samurai. In essence, these ronin are willing to become mercenaries in order to survive in their chaotic world. The situation faced within the film is similar to current events in the Middle East. The villagers in the film live in fear of insurgency and the domestic terrorism inflicted upon them by the group of thieving bandits that continuously attack their village for food and supplies. One of the problems within this film is the fact that the villagers are not being attacked by foreign forces that are trying to take over Japan, rather, they are being attacked by their fellow Japanese. Another difficulty encountered in the film, is that they attacks are not singular events, but recur at the end of a harvest when the village has renewed their supplies. The band of thieves does not casually and randomly pass through the village, but rather have established a nearby encampment. Exasperated by their inability to defend themselves and the inevitable raid on their village, the peasants decide that they must look to outside and trained men that have the capacity to protect them.

The samurai, in the film and historically, were of the upper and middle echelons of the warrior class. They were often the official military men of the nobility and were used to protect the law and order of the society. Because the peasants have no military training that they can employ to protect themselves, they look to the most experienced people they know, the samurai. The peasants' need to look for "foreign" protection is similar to America's involvement in the current Middle Eastern conflict. The Armed Forced present in places such as Afghanistan are not there to create conflict or start wars, but rather to quell uprisings in the area. The samurai in the film have a similar goal. They not only vow to protect the village, but also strategically analyze the situation at hand, eliminate weaknesses in the village's layout, and train the peasants so that they can defend their homes and livelihood. The Armed Forces have a similar plan in the Middle East. It is not reasonable to expect them to continue to patrol this region forever, and they have been in the process of helping to reconstruct the government, as well as training a standing army and police force.