Katsushiro (Ko Kimura), the novice samurai.

1. Rikichi (Yoshio Tsuchiya), a young farmer.

Humanistic view of violence and warfare.

Sense of moral outrage at human exploitation.

Social transition in 16th Century Japan.

1. New military tactics cause end of samurai profession.

Ambivalent social commitment of ôheroes.ö

Vin (Steve McQueen), restless for action.

Generated two sequels and TV series.

VI. FilmÆs Place in Cinematic History.

Each character delineated regarding personality, motivation and weapon specialty.

A well-made Western with more than usual character development, but not as good as others of its genre, including The Wild Bunch, Shane, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and not close to the greatness of its progenitor, The Seven Samurai.

Seven out-of-work professional American gunmen are hired by a group of poor Mexican farmers to de