"Seven Samurai" and "Magnificent Seven"

Paper Summary:

Compares Akira Kurosawa's original film and the American remake by John Sturges. Discusses style, structure, world view, cultural aspects, myths and plots

From the Paper:

"Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is an example of the circularity of film genres in the world cinema. Kurosawa was influenced in his samurai films by the motifs and icons of the American Western film, which was very popular in Japan as elsewhere, and in turn his Seven Samurai would become an influence on later American Westerns, notably the remake of Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven. A comparison of the two films, though, shows very different aesthetic attitudes and also very different industry structures. The Kurosawa film is an ensemble piece in which the director shapes the movement of the film like an epic ballet, while the American version is structured more as a star vehicle with a number of individual star turns to appeal to different segments of the audience.

Noel Burch notes that Japanese cinema is fundamentally ..."

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