Seven Samurai

Japan, 1586: chaos reigns everywhere, the result of the bloody power struggle between rival warlords. In these troubled times, a small farming village is ravaged by a group of bandits. Hoping for protection, the farmers turn to Kambei Shimada, a kind-hearted but seasoned samurai. Kambei, touched by their plight, is ready to defend the village, along with a group of ronin - samurai without a master. At first, the peasants are as afraid of the samurai as they are of the bandits, but Kambei manages to win their trust. Carefully he develops a strategy to protect the village, while the samurai train the peasants to defend their land and families together.

The influence of Seven Samurai is hard to overestimate. Director Akira Kurosawa introduced numerous innovative elements, which greatly influenced filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. For instance, it was one of the first films to use the now common plot element of gathering heroes into a team to achieve a specific goal.