Old Movies
The English course I'm taking this semester is 'Survey of Narrative Film'. I had taken this course as I had four courses selected and wanted a fifth, and spotted that a prof I had before was teaching (she's awesome). I wasn't hugely interested in any kind of survey course, but.... well, she's awesome.
It's been an interesting course so far. And we have term papers to write. Four topics were offered, with stuff like "write about the influence of a non-US director on mainstream Hollywood movies". To which I respond: don't I need to have complete the course in order to write that paper?
Anywho.
So she also mentioned the option of a 'compare and contrast' paper. Aha, sez I, I have an easy out: I've been meaning to watch Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa) and The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges) for a long time. The Magnificent Seven is a direct lift of Seven Samurai (it even says so in the opening credits), so I figured that a 'compare and contrast' of these two movies would be a good plan.
The prof agreed.
The only downside to this is that Seven Samurai is three and a half hours long, and I'm going to have to watch it several times. The Magnificent Seven clocks in at a mere two hours.
I watched them both back to back, and it's ironic: The Magnificent Seven drags significantly more than Seven Samurai
Ultimately, I don't think I'm going to enjoy this paper all that much: The Magnificent Seven is dross. A bunch of really good actors doing a really good job, with a terrible script.
As for it being 'based on' Seven Samurai?
It is, of course. A good 60% (or so) of the scenes in The Magnificent Seven are lifted directly from Seven Samurai (and this is ok, as Sturges purchased the rights to do so), but most of the stuff Sturges does appears to be just for the sake of repeating scenes.
But let's talk about 'based on'.
If Seven Samurai is The Mona Lisa of movies, then The Magnificent Seven is a 6 year old's attempt to finger-paint after seeing 'The Mona Lisa' in a book: sure, all the elements are there, and it clearly follows the same structure as the original. But it's like a child trying to recreate Michaelangelo's David using Playdough.....
I'm sure somebody out there likes The Magnificent Seven, and I can see on IMDB that there's a bunch of people who think it's fantastic. But frankly: it's dross. Unsubtle, racist (benignly racist, but still racist), simplistic and nonsensical (in many places) dross.
Anywho.
Those of you who haven't seen it: make the time to see Seven Samurai. Tis awesomeness in celluloid....