Seven Samurai (1954)

Tinseltown has never been shy about taking a critically acclaimed or popular foreign film and remaking  it into a product that mainstream American audiences will pay to see.  A successful example would be Edouard Molinaro's French comedy LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (1978) that was remade into THE BIRDCAGE (1996) with Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, and Gene Hackman, directed by the great Mike Nichols (THE GRADUATE). The location changed from Saint Tropez to Miami but the plot about a gay couple faced with meeting their straight son's future conservative in-laws stayed pretty much the same. It doesn't always work out.  Wim Wenders beautiful German film WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) about an angel in Berlin who wants to become human did not translate as well in Brad Siberling's American remake CITY OF ANGELS (1998) with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan.  Or in the case of the French/Dutch psychological thriller THE VANISHING (1988) which was well received internationally, its director George Sluzier would direct the American remake also called THE VANISHING (1993) starring Jeff Bridges and Kiefer Sutherland.  The American version did not garner the positive notices that the Dutch original did. 

One of the greatest foreign films ever is Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI (1954). Kurosawa's samurai masterpiece about seven distinct samurai (a Japanese version of a mercenary that lives by a code) who are hired by a village to fend off a marauding group of bandits (bad samurai) had to be turned into some kind of American version.  Six years later, John Sturges (THE GREAT ESCAPE) would make THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960), a western starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, and James Coburn based on Kurosawa's film. Sturges would change the location from feudal Japan in 1586 to 19th century Mexico but keep the plot and characters mostly intact. SEVEN SAMURAI'S and Kurosawa's influence would extend beyond THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and influence contemporary filmmakers ever since from Rober Aldrich (THE DIRTY DOZEN) to Sam Peckinpah (THE WILD BUNCH) to Quentin Tarantino (INGLORIOUS BASTERDS). In retrospect, Kurosawa himself may have been inspired by the westerns of American director John Ford (STAGECOACH, THE SEARCHERS). 

Kurosawa's films translated well to the western genre. Besides SEVEN SAMURAI, two other Kurosawa's classics were turned into American westerns. RASHOMON (1950) about four different characters recollection of a a bride's rape and her husband's murder would be remade as THE OUTRAGE (1964) directed by Martin Ritt and starring Paul Newman, set in the 1870s Southwest. YOJIMBO (1961) about a lone samurai who plays two gangs off against one another would be the inspiration for Sergio Leone's A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964) with Clint Eastwood as the enigmatic Man with No Name. Another surprising genre would find fancy from one of the Japanese director's movies. Kurosawa's THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (1958) is said to have inspired George Lucas's space fantasy STAR WARS (1977).  The storyline of two peasants in pursuit of treasure who unwittingly escort a princess past her enemies in THE HIDDEN FORTRESS would have similarities to Lucas's two droids R2D2 and C-3PO who aid Princess Leia in her escape from Darth Vader and his Imperial Forces. Lucas and fellow filmmaker Francis Coppola would repay their love and respect to Kurosawa later in his career (more on that later). 

With a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguni and directed by Kurosawa, SEVEN SAMURAI is set during Japan's ongoing civil wars of the Sengoku period in the 16th Century.  A band of bandits ride up to a ridge overlooking a village. They debate whether to attack it or not. Having stolen the village's rice earlier, they decide to return in the spring after the barley has been harvested. As the bandits ride off, Farmer Yohei (Bokuzen Hidari) emerges from underneath the ridge, having overheard their plan. He reports back to the village. The farmers argue on what to do. They turn to the Village Elder Gisaku (Kokuten Kodo) who suggests they hire samurai, hungry samurai to fight their battle. Led by the young, fiery villager Rikichi (Yoshio Tsuchiya), they go into town looking for samurai.  The villagers eventually settle on an aging ronin (a masterless samurai) named Kambei Shimura (Takashi Shimura) as their leader after they see him rescue a child from a thief.  Kambei declines at first but eventually decides to take up their cause.

A young, inexperienced samurai Katsushiro Okamoto (Isao Kimura) requests to be Kambei's disciple. Kambei reluctantly agrees. After determining how big the village will be to defend, Kambei holds auditions to select five more samurai.  He chooses Gorobei Katayama (Yoshio Inaba), a talented archer who will assist with the planning for the defense of the village; Shichiroji (Daisuke Kato), a trusted friend and former lieutenant; the stone cold deadly swordsman Kyuzo (Seiji Miyaguchi); Heihachi Hayashida (Minoru Chiaki), a less skilled but humorous samurai who keeps up the spirits of the group; and the loose cannon Kikuchiyo (Toshiro Mifune), a charming rogue who's not a real samurai but will prove his worth to the team. The seven samurai arrive at the village. Kambei and Gorobei begin to devise the defenses for the village with moats, barricades, and tall fences while the other samurai begin to train the villagers in the tactics of warfare.

The apprentice Katsushiro will stumble across a young woman in a a forest filled with white flowers named Shino (Keiko Tsushima) disguised as a boy. She's the daughter of farmer Manzo (Kamatari Fujiwara) who wants to protect her virtue from the samurai. Katsushiro and Shino will have a relationship that is forbidden as he comes from a wealthy family and she's a low-class peasant. The man-child Kikuchiyo discovers the farmers plunder, samurai armor and weapons acquired from previous bad samurai who died attacking the village. The villagers are not as innocent as they seem. Spring arrives and the farmers begin to cut the barley. About to consummate their love, Katsushiro and Shino discover three bandit scouts in the nearby woods. Kikuchiyo, Kyuzo, and Katsushiro kill two of the bandits and capture one who reveals their hideout before he is killed. The samurai and villagers take the fight to the bandits first as they journey through a canyon and waterfalls to their fort. They light their houses on fire to flush the bandits out. The farmer Rikichi discovers his kidnapped wife has become a concubine for the scoundrels. Rather than return disgraced to her husband, Rikichi's wife runs back into a burning hut and dies. The samurai lose their first member when Heihachi is shot and killed by a retreating bandit. The samurai have swords and arrows, but the bandits have a new, modern weapon - the musket.

The samurai and village are devastated by Heihachi's death. Kikuchiyo, the wannabe samurai, grabs the banner designed by Heihachi representing the samurai and village and plants it at the top of one of the huts. The samurai and village are united by this gesture and get over their grief just in time as the bandits (about 40 of them) begin their assault on the village, burning the outer homes first. Kikuchiyo rescues a baby from its mortally wounded mother, proving his courage to his comrades and revealing his past. The samurai and villagers work their plan, isolating a couple of bandits at a time to be killed while keeping the larger posse at bay. The silent, lethal samurai Kyuzo stealthily slips into the forest at night and captures one of the muskets, killing two bandits in the process. Kikuchiyo will disguise himself as one of the bandits to grab another musket. Kambei's lieutenant Gorobei will be killed by gunfire and the remaining samurai mourn his loss. After defending another siege with losses by both farmers and the bandits, Kambei prepares everyone for one final showdown. The Battle in the Rain begins and there will be more death and loss before the bandits are completely wiped out. Soon, the sun emerges, and the village rejoices, planting new crops and singing. The three remaining samurai watch wistfully. "In the end, we've lost this battle too, "Kambei says. "Victory belongs to those peasants, not to us.'

What makes SEVEN SAMURAI such an incredible film are its many layers.  Foremost, it's an adventure film that will inspire countless movies in the future with the universal plot of a band of good guys (or gals) versus bad guys, often outnumbered ten to one. It's a film about bonding, taking two different groups of people (samurai and farmers), and becoming one cohesive fighting force. It's a film about different class structures that existed in Japan in the 16th century and how they interacted. It has a forbidden love story between a wealthy samurai's son trying to make it on his own and a farmer's daughter whose class status prohibits her from loving his type. There are comical moments like Kikuchiyo trying to ride a horse. There are subplots like the farmer Rikichi's kidnapped wife and their tragic reunion.  Or the origins of Kikuchiyo, the wannabe samurai and his mercurial personality. 

Prior to SEVEN SAMURAI, Kurosawa had only done modern, urban films like DRUNKEN ANGEL (1948) and STRAY DOG (1949) about a cop looking for his stolen gun in Tokyo. With SAMURAI, Kurosawa opens up his lens to a grander scale and displays bravura filmmaking with some unforgettable shots.  Kikuchiyo holding a crying infant after the mortally wounded mother hands the child to him, a burning water wheel turning in the background. Repeated fast tracking shots of each individual samurai running when they believe an attack has begun. Katsushiro and Shino laying in a bed of white flowers in a grove of trees. Battle scenes in mud, streaks of pelting rain almost obscuring the action, gloriously shot in black and white. And the final image, the surviving samurai gazing at the burial mound of their deceased brothers, their swords planted next to them, a marker to their memory and a sign of the beginning of the decline of the samurai warrior class. 

At three hours and 27 minutes, SEVEN SAMURAI was the second longest movie ever made at the time next to Victor Fleming's GONE WITH THE WIND (1939). The length allows Kurosawa to let his epic story move at its own pace, explore his characters in depth, let the plot and situations unfold, and draw out the suspense as they wait for the bandits to return.  We get to meet and evaluate the farmers Rikichi, Manzo, and Yohei and better understand their personalities. The auditioning of the samurai occurs at nearly the one-hour mark. We even watch as some samurai turn down Kambei's offer before he selects his final five. We get to watch the one main female character Shino in SEVEN SAMURAI as she transforms from disguised boy (at her father's wish to hide her femininity and sexuality from the samurai) to secret lover to young Katsushiro to outcast when her father Manzo catches the two of them together. The old ronin Kambei and the extrovert Kikuchiyo get the most screen time, but Kurosawa allows us to get to know the other samurai as well: the rotund master planner Gorobei; the Zen master Hihachi; the almost God-like taciturn swordsman Kyuzo; and Kambei's trusted old friend and fighting buddy Shichiroji. SEVEN SAMURAI never feels slow. Every scene and sequence have a purpose and propels us toward the big finale which last for more than an hour at the film's climax.

Watching SEVEN SAMURAI, there are so many elements to the film that have influenced filmmakers ever since.  Kurosawa loves to show the meticulous details of Kambei and Gorobei's plan to defend the village like building fences and creating a moat to frustrate their attackers. In GOOD FELLAS (1990) director Martin Scorsese shows the step-by-step planning and heist by the gangsters of a Lufthansa payload. The father/son relationship of master Kambei and disciple Katsushiro will pop up in the STAR WARS films both with master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guiness) and apprentice Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in STAR WARS and a younger Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) in Lucas's THE PHANTOM MENACE (1999). Or look at the similarities in the sequence where Kyuzo walks into the forest and off-screen, kills a few bandits and returns with one of the muskets that killed Hihachi with George Miller's MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015) when Max (Tom Hardy) leaves Furiosa, the Wives, and the War Rig, walks into the wasteland darkness and off-screen kills the Bullet Farmer and two of his men, returning covered in blood with a bag of weapons and ammunition. Everywhere you look, SEVEN SAMURAI'S influence can be seen. 

At first glance SEVEN SAMURAI appears to be a celebration of the samurai warrior (Kurosawa himself was a descendent of the samurai). We see their code of honor and ethics, their bonding with one another, their skills as warriors, and how they work as a team.  Kurosawa has many shots with two, three, four even all seven of the samurai in the same frame. As the film progresses, we realize the samurai are a dying breed.  Like George Roy Hill's BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1967) or Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH (1969) where the gunfighters and bank robbers are running up against new technology and the modern age, the samurai with their swords and arrows are no match for rifles and bullets. Historically, the samurai class flourished as a hereditary nobility serving a shogun or military dictator (who was actually just a figurehead) from the late 12th century until the late 1870s. SEVEN SAMURAI foreshadows the beginning of the samurai's demise. 

Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa's favorite actor, has the good fortune (or luck) to play Kikuchiyo, the flashiest role and as it turns out, the most complicated character in SEVEN SAMURAI. Kikuchiyo's not even a samurai although he dresses the part. He's a wanderer, a clown, a hanger on who wins over Kambei and eventually the other samurai with his bravado and fearlessness. Kikuchiyo is a bridge between the revered samurai and the peasants.  We eventually learn Kikuchiyo was the son of a farmer who became an orphan, his father most likely killed by rogue samurai like the ones attacking this village. Kikuchiyo understands the dynamics of village life, enlightening the other samurai about the good and the bad aspects of these seemingly suffering farmers. When Hihachi is killed, Kikuchiyo sits next to his grave for days like a loyal dog. Kikuchiyo will have several brave scenes in SEVEN SAMURAI. He will also fall asleep at his post and leave parts of the village defenseless with his reckless actions that put the whole plan at risk. 

Like the collaboration of Robert DeNiro with Martin Scorsese, John Wayne with John Ford, or Robert Redford with Sydney Pollack, Mifune and Akira Kurosawa teamed up for a total 16 films.  From early in their careers with STRAY DOG or RED BEARD to their masterpieces like RASHOMON and THRONE OF BLOOD (1957), Kurosawa trusted Mifune to be his avatar for his cinematic storytelling. With over 168 film credits, Mifune did work occasionally in a few Hollywood films including John Boorman's HELL IN THE PACIFIC (1968) with Lee Marvin; Terence Young's western/samurai hybrid RED SUN (1971) with Charles Bronson and Ursula Andress; and Steven Spielberg's war comedy 1941 (1979) with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. 

All the actors in SEVEN SAMURAI are superb.  It took me a few viewings to figure out who all the characters are. Another Kurosawa favorite who appears in SEVEN SAMURAI is Takashi Shimura who portrays the veteran leader Kambei. Kambei is wise and patient, the glue that holds all these masterless ronin together. Even though Kambei projects confidence, we learn that he has not had many victories in his samurai career. Yet, Kambei has survived his share of battles. Shimura provides Kambei with a nice gesture that makes him recognizable throughout the film: rubbing his head when he's pleased or mystified.  Shimura first appeared as the lead in Kurosawa's IKIRU (1952) and would top Mifune by making 19 films with Kurosawa, some roles bigger than others. Besides SEVEN SAMURAI, Shimura appeared in Kurosawa's THRONE OF BLOOD, THE BAD SLEEP WELL (1960), and HIGH AND LOW (1963). Shimura even appeared in Japan's classic monster films like Ishiro Honda's GODZILLA (1957) with Raymond Burr and Honda's MOTHRA (1961) about a giant moth.  Shimura's last appearance in a Kurosawa film before his death would be KAGEMUSHA (1980). 

If you're wondering which characters in the western remake THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN are represented from SEVEN SAMURAI, here's my attempted breakdown. Yul Brynner plays Chris Adams, the Kambei character, who leads these seven gunslingers against Mexican bandits terrorizing a group of farmers. James Coburn plays Britt, a silent but lethal expert with knives who represents the Kyuzo character in the original.  After that, the comparisons are a little muddled.  Steve McQueen as the drifter Vin Tanner would seem to be Brynner's right-hand man, a cross between Gorobei and Shichiroji. Horst  Buchholz who plays the hot shot but inexperienced gunman Chico is part Mifune's Kikuchiyo with his wild antics but also the understudy Katsushiro learning from Brynner and McQueen the ways of the gunslinger. Charles Bronson as Bernardo O'Reilly may be a piece of Kikuchiyo with his connection with the farmers young kids. The most interesting new twist is Robert Vaughn, a southern Civil War veteran who must overcome his cowardice to aid his brothers-in-arms.

The western and science fiction genre may have adapted storylines and plots from Kurosawa, but Kurosawa was no stranger to borrowing from one of the best for a couple of his film adaptations.  THRONE OF BLOOD is Kurosawa's Japanese version of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. Instead of a nobleman in Scotland spurred by his ambitious wife to kill his king, Kurosawa moves it to feudal Japan where a Japanese general encouraged by his scheming spouse plots to usurp his commander and rule his castle. One of Kurosawa's last films would be RAN (1985), his interpretation of the Bard's King Lear switching the storyline from Shakespeare's old king and his three daughters to an elderly medieval warlord and his three sons. One of the best filmmakers in the world reimagining one of the greatest storytellers in history.

Kurosawa's influence on western filmmakers would be repaid when Kurosawa prepared to make KAGEMUSHA, a film about a petty criminal who resembles a warlord and is hired to be his double.  The film was going to be more expensive than Japan's Toho Studios was willing to finance.  Kurosawa reached out to George Lucas and Francis Coppola on a visit to San Francisco.  With the enormous success of STAR WARS, Lucas and Coppola were able to convince 20th Century Fox (who gave the greenlight to make STAR WARS) to put up the rest of the money for KAGEMUSHA in return for international distribution rights outside of Japan. At the top of the poster for KAGEMUSHA, it proudly proclaims "George Lucas and Francis Coppola Present a film by Akira Kurosawa." Ironically, Kurosawa was not as revered in Japan as he was around the rest of the world. 

SEVEN SAMURAI'S legacy of a group of different individuals who join together to fight a greater evil lives on recently from Sylvester Stallone's THE EXPENDABLES (2010) where ex-mercenaries team up to take down a South American dictator to Joss Whedon's THE AVENGERS (2012) about unique individual superheroes who form together to fight back an alien invasion. Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI will always be the gold standard, weaving memorable characters, social commentary, history, adventure, a love story, and intense battle scenes into one truly epic film that changed the cinematic world forever.