Theatrical
At 207 minutes, including a five-minute intermission with music, Seven Samurai was the longest film of Kurosawa's career. Fearing that American audiences would be unwilling to sit through the entire picture, Toho Studios originally removed 50 minutes from the film for U.S. distribution.[16] Similar edits were distributed around the world until the 1990s; since then, the complete version is usually seen.
The film was released in the United States in 1955, initially under the title The Magnificent Seven.[25][26][27] Following the 1960 release of the American remake The Magnificent Seven, the Japanese film's title reverted to its original Seven Samurai in the United States.[4]
Home media
Prior to the advent of DVD, various edited versions were distributed on video, but most DVDs and Blu-rays contain Kurosawa's complete original version, including its five-minute intermission. Since 2006, the Criterion Collection's US releases have featured their own exclusive 2K restoration, whereas most others, including all non-US Blu-rays, have an older HD transfer from Toho in Japan.[28][29]
4K restoration
In 2016, Toho carried out a six-month-long 4K restoration, along with Kurosawa's Ikiru (1952). As the whereabouts of Seven Samurai's original negative are unknown, second-generation fine-grain positive and third-generation duplicate negative elements were used.[30][31] It is available as a Digital Cinema Package from the British Film Institute.[32] This version was released on home video in Japan in 2023.[33][34]
