"The Seven Samurai"

[Fearless Freep]

Not a B Movie by any stretch of the imagination, but thought it worth mentioning that the last few nights I've watched The Seven Samurai[/url[

I've now seen the entrire Seven Samuari, trilogy (Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven, Battle Beyond The Stars)

No use detailing the plot as everyone probably knows it...if not from one of the above movies then from one of the many stories to take from it's plot elements.    Poor farmers are being raided into poverty by bandits, so they go into the city to hire warriors to defend them, offering little more than 'three hots and a cot'.  The seven  warriors all have episodes in their past, some good and some not, that make them volunteer for the job, so they come back to the little farm village and prepare to defend it from the bandits.   In this movie, the warriors were Samurai and the setting was middle-ages Japan.

The movie is long, about 3.5 hours, but does not feel long and is not boring.

I was suprised and intrigued by the similarities between this movie and Magnificent Seven, both in characters (the warrior who is the son of a farmer himself who is both ashamed and proud of his heritage) and scenes (the warrior chopping wood for supper, the last scene where the lead warrior declares that only the farmers have one, and many more).

The film, though, really emphasisze the caste difference, if you will, between the warriors and the farmers, and paints the poor farmers as *very* poor, pathetic and desperate


Anyway, if you want to step away from the B-Movie unk food for a few hours of some fine dining, this is a good one

[trekgeezer]

This is a great classic. I remember watching it a few years ago on TCM. They had it as double feature with The Magnificent Seven.

It is interesting to see how they combined and changed some of the character traits. I think the leader's speech at the end is almost word for word in the two movies.

[Fearless Freep]

Yeah, the "we haven't won, only the farmers have one" speech from both of them.

You're right about the different character traits, I mean James Coburn's character was dead on to one of the Samurai's (including the duel scene and his early reluctance to join in) but  I noticed the role of "the kid" and the role of "the farmer's son turned warrior" were split across two characters in "Samurai".

[Scott]

Both films are very good. Would like to see THE MAGNIFICIENT SEVEN on the big screen. That would be neat.

[BoyScoutKevin]

The "Seven Samurai" not only gave rise to "The Magnificient Seven" and all its sequels, but also films like "The 7 Magnificent Gladiators, " "Stunt 7," and even if they got the number wrong, "The Devil's 8." That basic concept-idea used in the film can also be found such films as "Bataan," "Battle Beyond the Stars," "The Lost Patrol," "Only the Valiant," and Sahara." Indeed, I believe the silent film version of "The Lost Patrol" was the first film to use that basic concept-idea. Though, there may have been an even earlier film, I don't know about.

[Fearless Freep]

That basic concept-idea used in the film can also be found such films as...

And about 80% of the "A-Team" episodes...

[dean]

Seven Samurai was a great film.  It's my personal favourite of Kurosawa's excellent work.

The Magnificent Seven is also great, especially since the main theme song is also the theme song for the ads for a brand of beer here, and that's always good!

[BoyScoutKevin]

The theme from "The Magnificent Seven" was also used to advertise Marlboro cigarettes with its Marlboro man. That was when cigarettes could still be advertised on television.

[Shadowphile]

To look at another case of 'japanese original, western remake', check out 'Yojimbo' and 'A Fistful of Dollars'.

The Clint Eastwood movie is almost a scene for scene remake of the Toshiro Mifune original.

[Mofo Rising]

I really enjoyed THE SEVEN SAMURAI.  In fact, I didn't know how much I had enjoyed it until I found myself thinking about several scenes weeks after I had seen the movie.

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is also a great movie, but it never really reaches the heights of the original movie.  Compare the two scenes in which Chico and Kikuchiyo (Mifune) rage against the farmers.  Mifune's speech is a great performance and a powerful scene.  Horst Bucholz, considerably less so.

Of course Kurosawa refused to play the comparison game at all and loved THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, so who am I to complain?

[Dunners]

When I actually found out the magnificent seven was a rip off of the seven Samurai I couldn't watch it again. I had seen the magnificent seven when I was probably about 13 or so and as a kid didn't really like it that much.

And when I had a chance to watch it again a year or so after I saw the seven Samurai for the second time(I was 23) I had discovered the joys of IMDB  and found out that the magnificent seven indeed was just an Americanized version of the seven samurai.

At this point in my life I wa sa film student and had discovered how really precious and wonderful an original movie can be. While the wonderful paradox of the samurai and the cowboy is really facinating...I'd rather the US not copy japanese films and do their best to com eup with their own ideas.

Just my dollar twenty five here.(cause 2 cents is cheap!)

[dean]

Its true that we should all strive to make original material, however sometimes I think its not such a bad thing to remake basic plot concepts and styles from other cultures, mainly because I hope that it would encourage more risky filmmaking in terms of style and substance.

However, in reality, remaking an asian movie to a western scene and vice versa usually results in executives going: 'hey, remaking Japanese Horror movies is popular, let's flood the market' instead of 'hey, the japanese horror style is really different than usual western horror flicks, lets make an original movie in that style.'

[Shadowphile]

Originality?  In Hollywood?  It's never been done before.  You'll never make money that way.  Just remake a movie that made a lot of money when it was released 30 years ago.  trust me, nobody will remember.

[Dunners]

Yes it has, the first 60 years of American cinema. After that they got laz and remakes slowly started to enter the realm.

[Shadowphile]

Exactly my point.  I was being facetious.