Seven Samurai (1954) - Expat Cinema Rotterdam

Kurosawa's exciting adventure film about desperate, 16th-century villagers recruiting seven samurai to protect them from bandits was incredibly influential and made a huge impact on later westerns and action films. This monumental action-adventure film – featuring the legendary Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura – splices philosophy and entertainment, subtle human emotions and merciless action into a rich, descriptive historical thriller and moral-political fable in one. A village of rice farmers recruit a group of samurai to protect them from plundering bandits.