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List Price: $29.95Amazon.com's Price: $26.99 You Save: $2.96 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Image Entertainment
EAN: 9780780021044
Format: Color, Criterion Collection, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 0780021045
Label: Image Entertainment
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Image Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 28, 1998
Running Time: 93 minutes
Sales Rank: 72574
Studio: Image Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: November 18, 1955
Editorial Review:
Description:
Hiroshi Inagaki's acclaimed Samurai Trilogy is based on the novel that has been called Japan's Gone with the Wind. This sweeping saga of the legendary seventeenth-century samurai Musashi Miyamoto (powerfully portrayed by Toshiro Mifune) plays out against the turmoil of a devastating civil war. The Trilogy follows Musashi's odyssey from unruly youth to enlightened warrior. In the first part, Musashi Miyamoto, the hero's dreams of military glory end in betrayal, defeat, and a fugitive lifestyle. But he is saved by a woman who loves him and a cunning priest who guides him to the samurai path. This installment won the 1955 Academy Award® for Best Foreign Film.
Amazon.com:
Toshirô Mifune defines the quintessential samurai in Hiroshi Inagaki's 1954 Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto, the first feature in a trilogy based on the epic novel by Eiji Yoshikawa. As in Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai, which appeared the same year, Mifune plays a brash and ambitious peasant who desires fame and power as a swordsman. His dreams of glory in war sour when his army is routed and he becomes hunted by the authorities, but the 'tough love' attentions of a kindly but severe monk help him develop from a hot-tempered outlaw to a thoughtful swordsman. Inagaki's somber color epic is very different from the energetic action of Kurosawa's films. The sword fights and battles are practically theatrical in their presentation, staged in long takes that emphasize form and movement over flash and flamboyance. Mifune brings a sad, almost tragic quality to the samurai warrior Musashi Miyamoto, whose dedication proscribes him to a lonely life on the road. Though the film stands well on its own, its stature takes on greater significance as the first act of Inagaki's stately, contemplative epic of the professional and spiritual development of Musashi, whose training and adventures continue in Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - The First Of Director Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy!
"Samurai I," starring Toshiro Mifune as first Takezo, then Miyamoto Musashi, is an excellent film into the trilogy which will conclude with the final, and best episode, "Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island." In this first film, Takezo (Toshiro Mifune) as he is known in the begining, [but will later be named Miyamoto Musashi], is a brash young man. As a peasant, he decides to leave his village and enter the army, which is on its way to do battle. However, he becomes despondent when his side is defeated. ... Read More
Rating:  - Alright Japanese action flick from the '50s
The always-reliable Toshiro Mifune plays a wild young man with a strong urge to go off and fight in a local civil war. He goes, the war doesn't turn out well, and the young man Takezo (the Mifune character) ventured off with takes up with a prairie floozy and her beautiful daughter and promptly forgets all about the girl he left behind. Takezo doesn't, though, and when he returns to the village to tell Otsu of the betrayal by some prestidigitation or other he finds himself hunted by the villagers on ... Read More
Rating: - Pretty good, not great
It is easy to overrate certain films, and this is one of them. Certain films, like this one, have a lot of status for some reason. This is not a great film. The story isn't absorbing enough. There are some other faults as well.
The battle scenes are unbelievable. A number of times we have one solitary fighter, either Takezo or his friend, beating off a large number of attackers. The way this is accomplished is by showing the hero spinning around, and every time he swings his sword, someone ... Read More
Rating: - Part 1 of Mifune's Great Samurai Trilogy
Often called a "Japanese 'Gone With the Wind,'" Hiroshi Inagaki's beautiful trilogy follows the story of the legendary real-life samurai Musashi Miyamoto (played by the almost-always amazing Toshiro Mifune) on his journey from being a rebellious young man to becoming a masterful warrior. I find it difficult to separate these three films (parts 1-3) in terms of individual merit. By watching all three films the end result is greater than the sum total of each part. Criterion offers each film separately or together ... Read More
Rating: - An interesting film for Criterion to release
This film (which won an Oscar® in 1955 for best foreign language film) is the first part of a trilogy which is known as the Samurai Trilogy. I find it very impressive for a color film to be released in 1954 at a time where even most American films were still in B&W. At this time, color films were still far more expensive than B&W and Japan was not yet even close to becoming the tech savvy country it is known for being today.
The film itself is based loosely on the true story of 17th century ... Read More
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