Read the full article on Firstpost, here: https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/seven-samurai-is-certainly-a-great-film-but-is-it-the-best-foreign-film-of-all-time-5517931.html
Polls are fun. They’re imperfect. They’re maddening when they don’t match your tastes. But they get people talking about the subject, which is the whole point of the poll. For a while now, BBC Culture has been running polls on cinema. In 2015, the web site asked 62 international film critics to determine the 100 greatest American films of all time. (To no one’s surprise, Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane landed at the top of the list.) The following year, 77 film critics from around the world weighed in on the 100 greatest films of the 21st century. (To some surprise, David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive came in at No. 1.) In 2017, the poll asked 253 film critics from 52 countries to determine the best comedies ever made. (The best of the best? Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot.)
Given that each of these polls ended with an American-made film in the top spot, BBC Culture decided to do something about it. They asked 209 critics in 43 countries to find the best in world cinema (i.e. in a language other than English). The results were published on October 30. The winner? Some obscure little Japanese film called Seven Samurai. I’m kidding, of course – but a part of me wishes I weren’t. For a change, it would be nice to see an unknown, unheralded film on these lists. And it’s not too much of an ask. Critics, after all, see practically everything that’s out there, and there’s surely a little-heard-of film they liked. Or maybe they’re waiting to put that film on a “100 greatest films you’ve never heard of” list.
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2018 Firstpost.
Baradwaj Rangan 
krrishsite
November 8, 2018
Why American made flims are always in top spot?
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MANK
November 8, 2018
For a change, I agree with the top film in a list seven samurai is a great work of
cinematic art, it’s a cinematic spectacle, Highly entertaining, Both classical and kinetic as an action picture, extrodinary character study of at least three different class of people, a film that inspired hundreds of films all across the globe, etc etc. I hardly find this combination in a film. The one’s that are high on art are usually low on entertainment . Character studies are hardly kinetic motion pictures. Guess Samurai deserves it. Another film that could also make the cut is Yojimbo
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(Original) venkatesh
November 8, 2018
Yojimbo > Seven Samurai ., my 2 cents.
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MANK
November 8, 2018
Venkatesh, in a way yes. But yojimbo doesn’t have the scope of seven samurai. It’s a more minimalist film while samurai is a full blown epic. BTW , the Hollywood remakes of both samurai and yojimbo completely jettisoned their thematic complexities turning them into simple western genre pictures.Fistfull of dollars even launched a new genre of spaghetti westerns
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KayKay
November 8, 2018
MANK, A Fistful of Dollars was a pretty good remake of Yojimbo (which in itself was based on a Dashiell Hammett story) but agree on Magnificent Seven vs Seven Samurai.
As a die hard fan of Westerns who used to watch “Magnificent Seven” all the time, once I saw Seven Samurai, I realized John Sturges was doodling with crayons while Kurosawa was oil painting.
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MANK
November 8, 2018
. which in itself was based on a Dashiell Hammett story
But Kurosawa never accepted the Red Harvest adaptation theory. But Last man standing , the more shoot em up version of Yojimbo has a definite Red Harvest feel. It did face a lawsuit from the Hammett estate
As a die hard fan of Westerns
Yes me too. Great fan of John Ford -john Wayne movies. You can see the influences of Ford on Kurosawa
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T_G
November 9, 2018
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20181029-twelve-amazing-lesser-known-films-from-around-the-world
Published on Oct 30!
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Vikram S
November 9, 2018
BR, this whole list business is good only for the bucket list. We depend heavily on what the western eye certifies as bonafide classic before and we feel validated only after something that we like figure on the various lists generated by the western eye.
Maybe it’s time we make lists with inputs from people who are from the respective country or that region (eg, ask the kannada speaking person for a list of kannada films), this way we can also be cognizant of films made with an eye on the external viewer (eg, all that Oscar bait, or the books that describe dosa as fermented rice fritters 🙂 )
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Rad Mahalikudi
November 9, 2018
I take these lists, top 100 films of any kind, as a starting pointer to make my watch list. That is it. These are similar to awards. We can debate to death whether ET should have won the Best picture award and not Gandhi.
Seven Samurai is a great movie but I wouldn’t get in to a discussion of whether it is #1 or #NN!! I am big fan of westerns and it is on my list of great westerns along with Yojimbo, Fistful of dollars, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Searchers, High Noon, Unfogiven, etc. I can’t stop talking about Once Upon a Time in the West.
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Sai Ashwin
November 11, 2018
I think you should take it into account that the list ranks films which are mentioned the most. So head to head comparison between films isn’t what is taken into account.
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Sai Ashwin
November 11, 2018
So to add to my previous comment, only 7 critics put Seven Samurai as their no.1 , So the rest 202 critics dont think its greatest foreign language film of all time. Yet many have it in their top 10 , I think the reason might be that it is most representative of Kurosawa’s work even if its not his best. I just hate ranked lists anyway.
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