> Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai not only influenced director John Sturges and actor Yul Brynner, but can be seen in the work of later directors such as Sam Peckinpah and Arthur Penn.

> When director Sam Peckinpah spoke about his second feature, Ride the High Country (1962), he said his aim was to make Westerns the way Kurosawa did. The Wild Bunch (1969) is seen by many as Peckinpah's The Seven Samurai.

> The plot of The Seven Samurai has inspired several other stories with widely divergent settings, including the Hong Kong action flick Liu he qian shou (Duel of the Seven Tigers, 1979), Italy's sword-and-sandals fantasy I Sette magnifici gladiatori (The Seven Magnificent Gladiators, 1983), and the Indian film China Gate (1998).

> The Seven Samurai is generally acknowledged to be the first film use the "horizon shot," when the bandits come pouring over the hilltop into view.

> George Lucas has acknowledged his debt to Akira Kurosawa, and several homages and allusions can be found throughout the Star Wars series.