Samurai and Magnificient Seven Kurosawa\'s

¶ … Samurai and Magnificient Seven

Kurosawa's Seven Samurai in an international context

Akira Kurosawa's 1954 motion picture The Seven Samurai generated much controversy in the East and in the West at the time when it appeared, considering that audiences were caught by surprise as a consequence of the values that the film put across. While Westerners are likely to believe that this movie primarily contains concepts characteristic to Japanese culture, Easterners are probable to consider that the film deals with Western thinking more than it addresses local theories. Kurosawa actually managed to successfully adapt ideas that were present in the Western genre to concepts considered to be essentially Japanese. He created a culture based both on the West and on the East as he developed an environment where his characters would be provided with conditions that were neither Japanese nor Western in nature.

While Kurosawa inspired from Westerns at the moment when he directed his film, he also introduced ideas that were exclusively Japanese. His work made it possible for Westerners to open their minds regarding the storylines and the acting that was present in Eastern films. The fact that Kurosawa's film was meant to address an international public made it possible for John Sturges to adapt the motion picture's storyline to his 1960 production The Magnificen Seven. The plots of both movies relate to farmers who hire mercenaries with the purpose of chasing off bandits. Even with the fact that Sturges' film is an remake of The Seven Samurai it provides viewers with a Western perspective in regard to the storyline and succeeds in It is surely difficult to associate The Seven Samurai with a particular culture, given the large amount of elements present in the film. Through inspiring himself from the Western genre, Kurosawa created a hero that was very difficult to understand by the Japanese, but that would generally be considered to be courageous and worthy of being praised in the Occident. The director introduces Western individualism to Japanese traditions and succeeds in creating a film that brings the typical cowboy image into the Japanese background.

Kurosawa's heroes are very different from archetypal heroes portrayed in films during the first half of the twentieth century. There appears to be nothing noble about this individual, considering that he is a drifter and has no actual interest in helping people. The samurai in the film act in order to protect their own interests, as they have no actual concern in the well-being of villagers. This individual struggles to make it in a changing world that no longer has any place for him.

The samurai in the motion picture are hungry and unhesitant about risking their lives in exchange of food and in order to protect the lives of people who hold no respect for them. One might be inclined to feel sorry for these seven samurai, as they lost their place in the world and as they simply have to accept their fate. These people respect a unique set of values, as the Bushido, the samurai fighting code, needs to be adapted in order to fit new circumstances that make their lives more difficult.

Considering that the peasants initially encounter resistance when they attempt to recruit samurai from the city, it only seems safe to assume that most of these fighters were reluctant to assist individuals who generally believed that society should not support people who use violence. Samurai were practically renegades at the time when the film's action takes place, as they were determined to do everything in their power to have society regret the fact that it was no longer willing to support them or their cause.

Kurosawa appears to express interest in having a defeated Japanese nation and a victorious Western world accept the fact that they had a lot in common. The director most probably believed that his people needed to be provided with guidance as they struggled to find a cultural identity in an era when globalization influenced individuals in sharing their traditions with the purpose of experiencing positive results.

Japanese standards typically promote the belief that individuals need to act on behalf of their community, as it is apparently wrong for them to consider that they matter as simple individuals. It was thus difficult for Japanese audiences to accept heroes that appeared to be above the law, especially considering that the warrior characters in The Seven Samurai are antiheroes. The Japanese society generally condemned values put across by this motion picture at the time when it was issued, as it was unable to accept the concept of renegades who needed to be praised for saving a community that would not have been in danger if it were not for other warriors who expressed interest in robbing people.

Kurosawa's film directly goes against Japanese values through promoting the concept of the individual as being more important than the community. The director apparently wanted to assist his country in setting the basis for a new system that would be less criticizing in regard to Western values. Surprisingly enough, the Japanese public expressed little to no disapproval in regard to the Western genre. However, they were apparently unable to accept seeing their country's values being adapted to create a film that would contain both Western and Japanese concepts.

The Seven Samurai stands as an example of the fact that film genres are circular in the motion picture industry, considering that it took a series of ideas from Westerns produced in the first half of the twentieth century and managed to play a major role in the creation of Sturges' The Magnificent Seven. However, even with the fact that the American version of the film is similar to Kurosawa's motion picture, some of the fundamental aspects of the two movies are different, with the characters being described differently and with people's position in regard to mercenaries being different.

The samurai in Kurosawa's film are only recognized for their ability to fight. Society has no other purpose for them and they appear to be well aware of this, as they accept their fate through taking the mission that is assigned to them. Kurosawa wants viewers to understand that a person can be anything he or she wants to be as long as his behavior does not violate the rights of others. Kikuchiyo is the perfect example of an individual who keeps an open mind without expressing any interest in denying his background. He considers that the peasants were entitled to murder samurai because these warriors persecuted them throughout the years and made it difficult for them to progress. In contrast to him, the villagers and his fellow samurai are unwilling to respect each other because they cannot possibly understand each-other's way of life. Kikuchiyo acts as a catalyst between the samurai and the peasants as he struggles to provide each group with explanation regarding life in general.

While The Magnificent Seven adapts the storyline in Seven Samurai, the American director did not necessarily intend his film to be an accurate replica of its Japanese counterpart. Many of the changes in the motion picture originate in the traditional Hollywoodian perspective concerning movies. The American version of the plot is meant to leave viewers with a moralizing conclusion. Honorable gunmen are rewarded for their bravery and determination while individuals who perform evil acts are punished for their behavior. An American or an international public is likely to be pleased as a consequence of seeing the film, as it is left with the impression that society is dominated by moral values where unlawful figures are likely to fall. In contrast, a 1950s' Japanese audience seeing Seven Samurai is probable to feel disturbed as a consequence of being presented with a story where ronin are shown as being more honorable than peasants. The Magnificent Seven is an archetypal Western where people need to be presented with clear facts regarding who is good and who is evil while Kurosawa's motion picture discusses a more complex account involving controversial heroes. The samurai group receives little appreciation for its work and it actually acknowledges that it is pointless to continue to respect a code that no one cares about any more. With peasants that only want them when they are at risk and with bandits that outnumber and outgun them, these warriors find it difficult and almost impossible to respect the Bushido.

Instead of dealing with matters related to action and morality, Seven Samurai is meant to discuss the harsh reality of life through focusing on the Japanese social order at the time when samurai came to be considered harmful for the local community and the fact that it was very difficult for samurai to act against their code. It appears that samurai fight and protect individuals because this is the only thing that they were taught and they express no hesitation in regard to getting actively involved in missions that are particularly dangerous. While the gunmen approached by the Mexicans initially waver because they have mixed opinions about the prospect of fighting thirty men, the samurai who refuse the peasants at first are not necessarily unwilling to work because they are afraid, as they simply appear to have no interest in being a part of a fight that brings them little to no honor, especially considering the fact that the remuneration for this job is not particularly attractive.

One can almost consider that American filmmaking contains fixed ideas where Japanese motion pictures produced by Kurosawa are the result of complex concepts coming from a series of cultures being brought together. In spite of the fact that Kurosawa's film goes against some of the most respected Japanese values during the 1950s, it is nonetheless related to the general context involving Japan. It follows Japanese film-making rules in an attempt to captivate an Asian public through having viewers identify with the characters from time to time. While the fact that the ronins in the film are shown as being glorious and as generally being responsible for the fact that the situation is saved, this type of people was considered to be predisposed to performing immoral acts at the time when the motion picture was released. The Japanese had just survived an international conflict that claimed the lives of many and were reluctant to appreciate matters related to the West or to violence as a whole. It was not necessarily that the Japanese did not appreciate Western films, as they were simply surprised that Kurosawa introduced concepts borrowed from the Western genre in a film meant to present people with conditions in sixteenth century's Japan.