This film is often described as the greatest Japanese film ever made, including by well-known Japanese film historian Donald Richie and by "Entertainment Weekly", in its list of The 100 Greatest Films of All Time. Interestingly, despite its widespread commercial popularity, it was not particularly highly regarded by Japanese critics at the time of its release (the early 1950s is now regarded as a sort of Golden Age of Japanese cinema). See more

Alternate Versions

The film's original Japanese release version runs 207 minutes, plus intermission, which includes 4 minutes of entr'acte music against a blank screen. This is the version that has been generally shown worldwide since the 1980s, though sometimes it is shown without the intermission and entr'acte, resulting in a listed running time of 203 minutes. The initial U.S.A. release was re-titled 'The Magnificent Seven' and released November, 1956, with English subtitles, and ran 158 minutes. Some European releases were even further shortened to 141 minutes. Landmark Films re-released the film in the U.S. in December 1982, the first time outside Japan the film saw a major release with its running time intact (although the intermission and entr'acte were removed). Later U.S.A. releases by Avco-Embassy Pictures, Janus Films, and Films Incorporated, and by BFI in the UK, are also the full original version of the film. See more