Akira Kurosawa Seven Samurai

Since its initial 1954 release Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai has always been considered one of the greatest motion pictures of all time. In this Japanese action epic Kurosawa set the standard for modern action, editing, and storytelling. The setup of the story is as follows: a poor farm village that struggles to survive is plagued by a ruthless group of bandits. Fed up with their oppressors the villagers go to the city to recruit samurai to help them defeat the bandits once and for all. From this basic premise comes one of the cinema's defining motion pictures. Kurosawa's distinct narrative style, editing, and staging have been an inspiration for multiple generations of filmmakers. Naturally, Kurosawa's many admirers have often paid direct

This isn't a coincidence: The Magnificent Seven is a direct, authorized American remake of Kurosawa's film. Almost every event in the film is a Western style update of what was seen in Kurosawa's film. Here the peasants are Mexicans living in a small border village. Banditos plunder their crop driving them to seek out gunmen. The recruiting is the same in both stories with the first warrior the peasants meet in town being a veteran warrior by the name of Chris Larabee Adams (here played by Yul Brynner) who begins assembling six additional gunfighters to help the Mexican village. He plays the part of Adams as a classic Western hero with a calm sense of detachment, cool speaking tone, and steadfast resolve; he is a man who has seen it all and no longer is fascinated, or frightened by violence. When he takes the job, just as the character of Kambei Shimada in Seven Samurai, the audience knows that there is no particular reason why this man chooses to come to the villager's cause, but it is undeniably his influence that will carry the seven and the village to

The character of Chico (Horst Buchholz) like Kikuchiyo desperately wants to prove himself to Adams and the other, far more disciplined members of the seven, but he also struggles with his youth, and falling in love with a woman of the village. Unlike Kikuchiyo, Chico does survive the final battle, and unlike Katsushiro, Chico does stay behind to start a life with the peasant girl he'd fallen in love with (which makes sense as, unlike Katsushiro, Chico doesn't have to worry about class differences between himself and the girl). Filling the spot created by this two-character fusion is Lee (Robert Vaughn) a once noteworthy gunman on the run from the law, but has developed a crippling fear of death. He is a good character concept who ultimately overcomes his fear of death in the finale, but could have been developed