The Greatest Samurai Movie of All Time Has a New Streaming Home (& It’s Free)

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Good news for action movie lovers: the classic film Seven Samurai will soon be available to stream on Tubi, and it’s free!

The classic 1954 film Seven Samurai will be available to stream for free on Tubi starting December 19th. Directed by Akira Kurosawa, the movie is set in 16th-century Japan and tells the story of a poor village that hires seven samurai to protect them from bandits. Takashi Shimura plays Kambei Shimada, the skilled and respected leader of the samurai group.

When it first came out, Seven Samurai was the most expensive film ever made in Japan, costing over ¥210 million (about $580,000). It became the second-highest-grossing Japanese film of 1954, but its influence on samurai movies and filmmaking in general has been even more significant.

Even after more than 50 years, Seven Samurai remains a beloved and highly acclaimed film. It consistently appears on ‘best of’ lists and boasts a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on over 100 critic reviews. Viewers also overwhelmingly love it, giving it a 97% approval rating from over 50,000 reviews.

Often considered Akira Kurosawa’s best film, Seven Samurai tells a compelling story of a samurai defending a village, and features exciting, dynamic battle scenes. Rotten Tomatoes praises it as a classic, epic adventure with a captivating story, unforgettable characters, and impressive action, making it one of the most important and influential films of all time.

Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai essentially created a formula – a team of skilled individuals coming together to protect a weaker group – that’s been copied in countless movies. This idea became a staple in action films, Westerns, and superhero stories, and even inspired blockbusters like Star Wars and The Avengers. The film’s innovative battle sequences, filmed with multiple cameras and a fast pace, also had a lasting impact, influencing films such as Blade Runner and beyond.

Seven Samurai Inspired Star Wars, Star Trek & More

Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai has had a huge impact on filmmaking worldwide, leading to numerous remakes and adaptations. One of the most famous is The Magnificent Seven (1960), where director John Sturges reimagined the story with American cowboys instead of Japanese samurai. More recently, films like Star Wars: Rogue One have also drawn inspiration from Seven Samurai.

The classic samurai film has influenced many famous Hollywood directors. Zack Snyder has said his 2023 film, Rebel Moon, was directly inspired by it, even calling it Seven Samurai in space. Denis Villeneuve, the director of Dune, considers it one of his all-time favorite films and acknowledges its impact on his 2015 movie, Sicario. The Star Trek franchise also drew inspiration from it, with the ‘Marauders’ episode borrowing the film’s storyline.

Seven Samurai arrives on Tubi on Dec. 19.

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2025-12-09 17:09