{"id":31,"date":"2008-05-04T03:32:23","date_gmt":"2008-05-04T03:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/2008\/05\/04\/variations-on-samurai\/"},"modified":"2012-10-03T01:59:39","modified_gmt":"2012-10-03T01:59:39","slug":"variations-on-samurai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/2008\/05\/04\/variations-on-samurai\/","title":{"rendered":"Variations on Samurai"},"content":{"rendered":"

[<\/strong> \"Cool\" Mood:<\/strong> Cool ]<\/strong>
[<\/strong> \"Playing Currently:<\/strong> Playing Battleship with Death… ]<\/strong>
<\/p>\n

I love<\/span> Kurosawa.<\/span> <\/p>\n

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<\/span>: I will<\/span> view them!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Really, I’m just making excuses. I’ve watched every<\/span> Zatoichi film, even the elusive number 14, ordered on eBay (thank you, France!). Ditto a number of the Ichi television series episodes.<\/p>\n

I’ve done Akira wrong.<\/p>\n

I suffered through The Hidden Fortress<\/span> because Lucas said it was part of his inspiration for Star Wars.
\nInspiration, 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. <\/p>\n

I watched Rashomon<\/span>. Twice<\/span>. I almost get it. They say the third time’s the charm. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There is, of course, The Magnificent Seven<\/span>. It is one of my all-time absolute favorite, I-don’t-have-enough-adjectives-for-how-I-feel movies. <\/p>\n

A (supposed) scene from Seven Samurai was featured briefly during the "first date" segment of the Kevin Costner\/Whitney Houston collaboration, The Bodygaurd<\/span>–not to be confused with the great 1980 film, My Bodygaurd<\/span>, that started Adam Baldwin on his long journey to playing the likes of Knowle Rohrer, Jayne Cobb, Marcus Hamilton, and John Casey. <\/p>\n

You’ll always be Linderman to me, Adam.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Seven Samurai’s inspiration can be seen indirectly in such films as The Three Amigos<\/span> and A Bug’s Life<\/span>. <\/p>\n

More immediate examples are Battle Beyond The Stars<\/span> and Galaxy Quest<\/span>. <\/p>\n

I’m sure there are more than just these, but let’s go from here.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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<\/span>: the one and only Robert Vaughn! He played the same character, too, with many of the same lines, except innnn Spaaaaaaace!<\/span> <\/p>\n

The other main draw of that sad little film was not the special effects…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Is it any wonder I have a (soft) spot for Boobs McGillicutty, a.k.a. Sybil Danning?
\nOddly, though, the ship below was flown by Richard Thomas’s unbelievably poorly named character, Shad. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Don’t skimp on the breastfeeding, ladies. Your babies will grow up to fly ships like that one.<\/p>\n

And don’t name your babies Shad<\/span>.<\/p>\n

I can’t imagine why, but somehow, somewhere, the soundtrack to that movie exists, too: <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Galaxy Quest<\/span> came along in 1999 and made me love Tim Allen all over again. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

What’s strange about Galaxy Quest, A Bug’s Life, and Three Amigos is the addition of the "performers-turned-saviors" plotline.
\n<\/p>\n

I wonder where in the history of scriptwriting that idea got added to the mix…<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n


\nShut 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! <\/p>\n

Ahem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Enjoy the samurai, everyone.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[  Mood: Cool ][  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 \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nVariations on Samurai - War Rocket Ajax<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/2008\/05\/04\/variations-on-samurai\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Variations on Samurai - War Rocket Ajax\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[  Mood: Cool ][  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 \u2026 Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/2008\/05\/04\/variations-on-samurai\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"War Rocket Ajax\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-05-04T03:32:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-10-03T01:59:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/bb\/images\/weblogs\/mood_cool.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lloyd Woodall\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/\",\"name\":\"War Rocket Ajax\",\"description\":\"A RevolutionSF.com Blogs site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/2008\/05\/04\/variations-on-samurai\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/bb\/images\/weblogs\/mood_cool.gif\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/2008\/05\/04\/variations-on-samurai\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/2008\/05\/04\/variations-on-samurai\/\",\"name\":\"Variations on Samurai - War Rocket Ajax\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/2008\/05\/04\/variations-on-samurai\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-05-04T03:32:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-10-03T01:59:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/#\/schema\/person\/12864f78f74d617e6df42621e2bb0ecc\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/2008\/05\/04\/variations-on-samurai\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/#\/schema\/person\/12864f78f74d617e6df42621e2bb0ecc\",\"name\":\"Lloyd Woodall\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c8ddbb166031c0935f74942176a4d783f1408ac06d24305a9738ce4b013639d8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lloyd Woodall\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Frogwart\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71,"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/warrocketajax\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}