The Seven Samurai remake

[Pink Ranger]

This sounds like a 1990's DTV movie. Here's what the cast should be:

Gary Daniels, Billy Blanks, Jeff Speakman, Olivier Gruner, Michael Dudikoff, Don 'the Dragon' Wilson, Loren Avedon and Sasha Mitchell.

Ha ha, you forgot to put in Julie Strain and Lee Majors in there.

 

[Thundarr]

1. Other then the concept of the story, what else was taken from the Seven "SAMURAI" in that western? You didn't see them running around in feudal Japan fending off evil doers did you?

2. It wasn't even 1/10th as good as the Original. So in concept it was a failed experiment. Leone was much better at stealing.

And I never said Hollywood was bad. Gone with the Wind is pure Hollywood and I love it to peices. But the idea of taking something that isn't built in that manner, and attempting to make it such never works.

You had the grizzled veteran soldier accepting the challenge of defending the town. You had his old war buddy joining the team out of loyalty to his friend. You had the eager youth out to see the world. You have the tag along that nobody wants but proves himself to be very capable (in the case of The Magnificent Seven, the eager youth and the annoying tag along are one and the same). You have the emotionally distant professional who joins the group to challenge himself and test his skills. You have the smart ass who helps to keep up morale. You have the group's moral compass, who joined the group just because it's the right thing to do. You also have the romance between the eager youth and the village girl.

Each retelling of this story doesn't just have seven mercenaries agreeing to defend a town against an army of rogues for little or no pay. They also have all of these other traits in one form or another, though they occasionally mix them up a bit. For example in Battle Beyond The Stars, the eager youth character was the one who went out to find mercenaries to help defend his planet from John Saxon. The annoying tag along was the female fighter pilot. The professional that wanted to test his skills was changed to a group of aliens who were bored. The moral compass was changed to a lizardman with a personal vendetta against John Saxon. The romance between the eager youth and the village girl was changed to a romance between the eager youth and the female mechanic he recruited. Watch the movie again and you will find parallels between each main character in Battle Beyond The Stars and The Seven Samurai.

The same can be said of Mystery Men. You have the leader/grizzled veteran Mister Furious. His loyal friend The Shoveler. The eager youth Invisible Boy. The moral compass/personal vendetta The Bowler. The annoying tag along The Spleen. With the exceptions of it being a comedy and none of the seven dying, it was a superhero version of The Seven Samurai. So yeah, there is a LOT more in common between The Seven Samurai and it's derivatives that JUST the basic concept.

 

[Octoberist]

I'm not against remakes (or movies inspired by) Seven Samurai, but I'm against if in the context of the story, if our leads being portrayed as samurai/ronin openly by that title, and they're just a bunch of typical mercs (like what was planned out by the Weinstein's a decades ago.) The Samarai themselves is very specific, and there's nothing like them in other cultures. Close equivalents but they're uniquely Japanese.

That's why I'm cool with Magnificent 7. Hell do one with knights during the dark ages. But just don't call them samarai when they're not.

 

[Octoberist]

In the Weinstein remake, Seven Samarai was going to take place in Thailand, and the Seven were these world warriors: an American, a Brit, a Chinese, a Thai, an Afraican dude, etc. And they are brought together by fate or whatever from all over to protect a village. But they shouldn't be called samurai, and I think they were a number of times in the script. It shouldn't be used as a placeholder for 'mercenaries' for hire. Call it 7 Warriors, 7 Mercs instead.

 

[LoganGambit87]

i kinda want a seven samurai remake done in sci fi like 1980's Battle Beyond the Stars

 

[Thundarr]

Why god why. I honestly don't understand the thought process behind remaking this(apart from $$$).

On one hand, remakes are good in theory, because they bring great stories to an audience who would otherwise not experience it. Yet, remakes of masterpieces can NEVER be as good as the originals, and of course Hollywood will inevitably take the soul out of it, thus nullifying the original point and viewer experience.

In short, Hollywood you are a fu?*!ng c*%t.

This isn't NECESSARILY true, although it does tend to be the case more often than not. Look at John Carpenter's The Thing vs the original from the 1950's. Or the 1978 remake of Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers vs the 1950's original. While I've yet to see the remake of True Grit, I understand that it does hold its own against John Wayne's original. Some even say that it's better.

All I'm saying is try to keep an open mind. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

 

[Thundarr]

i kinda want a seven samurai remake done in sci fi like 1980's Battle Beyond the Stars

I'd love to see a Swords & Sorcery version, with seven D&D type characters defending the town. A human knight, a half-orc barbarian, an elven archer, a gnomish wizard, a Dwarven fighter, a human monk, and a cleric (elf, dwarf, human, gnome, whatever). The bandits would have to be far more formidable though, like maybe an orc horde.

 

[Thundarr]

Director has been chosen.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118036321

So it's not so much a remake as it is an homage, like Battle Beyond The Stars, The Magnificent Seven, A Bug's Life, Mystery Men, etc.

I have less of a problem with that than a straight up remake. They should come up with a new title for it though. Like maybe "Seven Soldiers" or "Seven Gunmen", maybe just "The Seven". Just don't call it "The Seven Samurai" when there are no samurai actually in the movie.