One of the greatest movies of all time.

When I was growing up in the late ’70s, there was a series of books that I absolutely adored — The Book of Lists. Comprised of mostly useless trivia including such items as “the shortest celebrity marriages” and “longest words in the English language” you can only imagine how a fan of both lists and useless trivia would be in hog heaven with such a find. Needless to say I spent countless hours with my nose buried in each new entry in the series.

One particular thread covered the top ten favorite movies of various celebrities at the time including Walter Matthau, Henry Fonda, and many others. What intrigued me with these lists was that there was one movie title on there that I’d never heard of in my life: 1954’s “Shichinin no samurai” from Japan. What the…?!? How on earth could a Japanese movie from the ’50s be on both Matthau’s and Fonda’s top ten movies of all time list?!?

It wasn’t until I was in my 30s that I chanced upon the title on Amazon after having forgotten about it for well over two decades (damn that makes me sound old). I decided that I’d give it a shot and ordered it. I remember the DVD being priced more highly than any other single purchase I’d ever made — with the exception of box sets — and having to wait while it was imported from parts unknown. Once it finally arrived I balked at the fact that it was well over three hours in length. Yep, I was in for three hours of reading subtitles from a black and white film from Japan.

And was I ever.

It’s regarded as the grandfather of all action films and it’s easy to see why.

I ended up watching the movie three times in a row that Sunday afternoon. The movie, in a word, is “incredible.” George Lucas based a huge portion of “Star Wars” on this flick, borrowing everything from the camera transitions to dialogue to actual characters (Obi Wan Kenobi is a direct replica of the character Kyuzo, my personal favorite). The story has been remade countless times as a drama (”The Magnificent Seven”), a comedy (”The Three Amigos”), and even as a children’s film (”A Bug’s Life”).

Anyone having grown up in the present has been exposed to so many action films that if they were to watch “The Seven Samurai” for the first time today, they’d not realize the impact this film had on cinema. It’s regarded as the grandfather of all action films and it’s easy to see why. Akira Kurosawa, the film’s writer and director, brought together so many elements for the first time in motion pictures — slow motion for emphasis, the reluctant hero archetype (think Bruce Wayne turning into Batman), and one of the most oft-imitated storylines in movie history.

Today, Criterion is releasing a special edition three-disc set of the movie and you can bet your ass that I’ll be at Best Buy over lunch picking it up.