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Mood: Cool ]
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Currently: Playing Battleship with Death… ]
I love Kurosawa.
Granted, I haven’t seen the majority of Kurosawa’s films, though I own a number of them on general principal. To paraphrase Sting, as Fayd Rautha: I will view them!
Likewise, I haven’t yet read the autobiography of Kurosawa that I received several years ago on my birthday. There’s so much to read between marathon Oblivion/Xbox 360 sessions.
Really, I’m just making excuses. I’ve watched every Zatoichi film, even the elusive number 14, ordered on eBay (thank you, France!). Ditto a number of the Ichi television series episodes.
I’ve done Akira wrong.
I suffered through The Hidden Fortress because Lucas said it was part of his inspiration for Star Wars.
Inspiration, my @$$. Maybe he was "inspired" to make a movie with a pulse! Those two hours of boredom are just one more thing Lucas owes me an apology for.
I watched Rashomon. Twice. I almost get it. They say the third time’s the charm.
But what I want to touch on here is the proliferation of film references ("remakes," "reimaginings," what-have-you) to Seven Samurai, arguably one of Kurosawa’s best films.
There is, of course, The Magnificent Seven. It is one of my all-time absolute favorite, I-don’t-have-enough-adjectives-for-how-I-feel movies.
A (supposed) scene from Seven Samurai was featured briefly during the "first date" segment of the Kevin Costner/Whitney Houston collaboration, The Bodygaurd–not to be confused with the great 1980 film, My Bodygaurd, that started Adam Baldwin on his long journey to playing the likes of Knowle Rohrer, Jayne Cobb, Marcus Hamilton, and John Casey.
You’ll always be Linderman to me, Adam.
The Seven Samurai’s inspiration can be seen indirectly in such films as The Three Amigos and A Bug’s Life.
More immediate examples are Battle Beyond The Stars and Galaxy Quest.
I’m sure there are more than just these, but let’s go from here.
The little Roger Corman-directed John-Boy vehicle above even starred one of the stars from the star-studded (a pun I use willingly), majestic Seven Samurai "re-imagining," The Magnificent Seven: the one and only Robert Vaughn! He played the same character, too, with many of the same lines, except innnn Spaaaaaaace!
The other main draw of that sad little film was not the special effects…
Is it any wonder I have a (soft) spot for Boobs McGillicutty, a.k.a. Sybil Danning?
Oddly, though, the ship below was flown by Richard Thomas’s unbelievably poorly named character, Shad.
Don’t skimp on the breastfeeding, ladies. Your babies will grow up to fly ships like that one.
And don’t name your babies Shad.
I can’t imagine why, but somehow, somewhere, the soundtrack to that movie exists, too:
Enough badgering of that terrible waste of my youth that I watched every time I caught a glance of it on cable in the ’80s, though.
Galaxy Quest came along in 1999 and made me love Tim Allen all over again.
Great performances, great sci-fi references, a wonder-filled story…you know, I can’t think of a thing I didn’t like about Galaxy Quest. Same goes for The Magnificent Seven.
As strictly faithful adaptations of Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven is more direct while Galaxy Quest is more funny fun. Both are excellent ways to spend a couple hours.
What’s strange about Galaxy Quest, A Bug’s Life, and Three Amigos is the addition of the "performers-turned-saviors" plotline.
I wonder where in the history of scriptwriting that idea got added to the mix…
Whatever the case may be, we have a number of Seven Samurai derivatives to enjoy, and Thank Shatner, they are good, if not great. Well, most of them.
Shut up, John Saxon! You won’t be able to save your foxy daughter from Freddie Krueger, so don’t scowl at me about your career choices!
Ahem.
Enjoy the samurai, everyone.
