I love how Seven Samurai depicts the harsh reality of what being a samurai was actually like in feudal Japan

It really deconstructs the typical glamorized portrayal of samurai as men of courage and integrity. Sure, the titular seven are willing to put their lives on the line to help a village of farmers defend against a gang of bandits, but they are the exceptions. The movie makes it clear that most samurai were ruthless thugs themselves who used their higher social status to oppress the weak. Unless one was wealthy, being a samurai actually kinda sucked. They were forbidden from pursuing any other jobs and had to rely solely on their skills as warriors to make a living, where there was always a high chance of them being killed. The farmers in the film are poor and can only offer food as payment, which is exactly why most of the samurai even agree to help — they're so poor themselves that they'll take any job that will feed them. In the end, while the samurai succeed in defending the village and slaying all the bandits, only three of them survive. It ends with the farmers singing happily as they can now harvest and prosper in peace, while the three remaining samurai are left standing by the graves of their fallen comrades, having gained nothing other than the meals they were provided, and are now back to where they were at the beginning of the film: poor, hungry and without work. The last line said by the lead samurai Kambei says it best: "The victory belongs to those peasants. Not to us."

The common depiction of samurai as honorable, badass warriors engaging in epic duels and walking out unscathed is fun and all, but Seven Samurai utterly picks apart such tropes (before many became tropes, even) and does so in a way that makes for a brilliant masterpiece that gives a a far more realistic portrayal of what being a samurai was like than most films of its kind that came after. Many have interpreted the portrayal of samurai in this film as director Akira Kurosawa's way of apologizing, as he was actually a descendant of samurai ancestors