Short answers, pulled from the story.
Seven Samurai was released in Japan on the 26th of April 1954, with a runtime of 207 minutes, making it the longest Japanese film produced at that time. A shorter 160-minute cut was prepared for general theatrical release, and the American version released in November 1956 ran to 141 minutes.
Seven Samurai was directed by Akira Kurosawa. The screenplay was co-written by Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguni, developed over more than six weeks at a ryokan inn in Atami.
The total production budget came to between $556,000 and $580,000, making it the most expensive Japanese feature film made at the time. Toho had originally budgeted around $150,000 to $200,000, and production was suspended in September 1953 when the money ran out before a third of the script had been filmed.
Seven Samurai took 148 working days to shoot and used 130,000 feet of film. Filming began on the 27th of May 1953 and wrapped in 1954.
Fumio Hayasaka composed the score for Seven Samurai while suffering from tuberculosis. He produced 300 orchestral sketches over roughly two months and turned down all other work to focus on the film. His name appears alone in the film's credits, an arrangement described as highly unusual in the Japanese film industry of the time.
Seven Samurai was remade as the 1960 American Western The Magnificent Seven, and the Tokyo District Court ruled in 1978 that only that single remake had been licensed, holding MGM and United Artists liable for the sequels. Other works citing the film as an influence include Sholay (1975), Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), A Bug's Life, Ghost of Tsushima, Rebel Moon (2023), and multiple entries in the Star Wars universe.