Welcome to spot the differences...Magnificent Seven addition! Now, the most obvious difference between 'Seven Samurai' and the The Magnificent Seven' is that 'The Magnificent Seven' is 'Seven Samurai' but with COWBOYS!
Okay. That's it for this post. Lets see, what should I review next?
What, you were expecting a more in-depth compare and contrast?
>Sigh< Fine.
Remember when I said one of the major themes in Seven Samurai is the class differences between the farmers and the Samurai? That's not really the case here. The Gunslingers pretty much treat the farmers as equals. This is a story about sticking up for the underdog and fighting for a cause because it's the right thing to do, rather than for personal gain. Seven Samurai is also about fighting for a cause because it's the right thing to do, but it's more about personal honor and less about underdogs.
The film starts in a small Mexican village in a similar manner to Seven Samurai, only this time around there is actual interaction between the farmers and the bandits. When one of the farmers tries to fight back he is gunned down. So the villagers consult the old man and he tells them to scrape together everything of value they have so they can buy guns to fight off the bandits.
So they head north to find guns. As we're cutting out all of that class difference stuff, we're also cutting back on the process of finding honorable Samurai who don't treat the farmers as if they're the dirt beneath their shoes. The first thing the farmers witness when they arrive in town is two gunslingers risking their lives to give a dead American Indian a proper burial. These gunslingers are Chris (played by Yul Brynner) who will be your Sensei Kambei for the evening, and Vin (played by Steve McQueen). At first glance Vin seems to fill the role of Katsushirō, except there is no mentor/student dynamic between Chris and Vin. Again, they are treated as equals.
The act of heroism is also witnessed by a young Mexican wannabe Gunslinger named Chico (played by Horst Buchholz). Chico seems to be Katsushirō and Kikuchiyo combined. He has Katsushirō's youthful naivety, insecurity, and romantic subplot. He has Kikuchiyo's pride, blustery goofball nature, and also plays the role as moderator between gunslingers and farmers. Chris describes Chico as 'Young and proud. And the graveyards are filled with young and proud gunslingers'.
So the farmers ask Chris to help them buy guns. Chris advises them to hire gunslingers instead as 'Men are cheaper than guns'. ...That's not cynical at all... So they offer him all the money they could scrape together. To which he responds: 'I've been offered a lot for my work...but never everything.' Is that profound or what?
So after that Chris goes about hiring gunmen. This section is more or less identical to Seven Samurai. One think about Seven Samurai though, is after the main introduction of each of the seven only the three main characters get a lot of development. In 'The Magnificent Seven' more of the gunslingers have defining characteristics. We have Harry, the soldier of fortune, Lee, army deserter who caves under pressure, and Bernardo, who has a soft spot children in spite of his gruff persona. Of course as we're spending more time with the gunslingers we're also spending less time with the villagers and the social commentary from the original.
One interesting difference between 'Seven Samurai' and 'The Magnificent Seven' comes in the form of 'Show Don't Tell'. Seven Samurai has Kambei studying maps and surveying the land to determine the best way to defend the village. Magnificent Seven merely shows us the gunslingers overseeing construction of stone walls and the placement of nets. 'Magnificent Seven' saves time in this manor, but 'Seven Samurai' shows us that Kambei to be a brilliant strategist. Also in 'Magnificent Seven' Petra tells Chico through exposition that the fathers feared for the safety of their daughters and made them go into hiding. She also tells Chico that her father will punish her for spending so much time with him. In 'Seven Samurai' Shino's father forcibly cuts her hair so she'll look like a boy, and later gives her a beating after catching her with Katsushirō. I don't know if Petra's exposition info-dump is to save time or because of the MPAA's stance on depictions of violence towards women at the time.
In general 'Magnificent Seven' is a lighter movie than 'Seven Samurai'. For example, there's a scene where the gunslingers try to convince the wise old man to move into the village as they can't defend his home. The old man refuses to leave. In 'Seven Samurai' the houses on the other side of the river are burned to the ground and everyone but a small child is killed by the bandits. In 'Magnificent Seven' the old man shows up again after the climax without a scratch.
Although the first half of 'Magnificent Seven' follows 'Seven Samurai' pretty faithfully, the second half starts to diverge. Rather than sneaking off into the enemy camp to steal superior weaponry, Chico infiltrates the bandits to spy. And instead of negative consequences for his reckless action, he is praised as a hero. However, some of the farmers get cold feet after the initial skirmish and betray the gunslingers by letting the bandits into the village.
The bandit leader allows the gunslingers to live, but only taking there guns and force marching them out of town. The seven decide to return to the town in spite of this betrayal, as they were paid for a job and that job is unfinished. It's a combination of personal pride and sense of duty.
So they have a heroic last stand which many of the gunslingers die. The most tragic is Bernardo, who dies protecting the three young boys who've adopted him. Chico - and this is what I consider to be the biggest difference between the two versions - survives. I was actually pretty disappointed about this the first time I watched 'Magnificent Seven'. I hadn't seen yet 'Seven Samurai', but I knew from the anime series 'Samurai 7' that Kikuchiyo dies in the end and is buried with honor alongside his fallen comrades as a true Samurai. Having Chico survive and stay with Petra to start a life as a farmer felt like the opposite of a character arc to me.
Watching it again, the change works pretty well. The other gunslingers are predicting that Chico will die in battle because of his impetuous nature since the beginning of the movie, so it's kind of a plot twist when he doesn't. Also part of what makes Kikuchiyo's death so effective is that he's atoning for his past mistake of deserting his post and getting people killed. Also, Chico is a combination of Kikuchiyo and Katsushirō, and given the more optimistic tone of 'Magnificent Seven' it makes sense that Chico gets Katsushirō's happy ending.
Bottom line: 'Seven Samurai' and 'The Magnificent Seven' have a lot of similarities, but enough differences to keep things interesting. If you watch one it is definitely worth your time to watch the other.
-Geekboy
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