Seven Samurai – Tripping Through Gateways

A peaceful planet called Akira is visited by the conqueror Sador. He promises to return with an armada that will overrun the planet if they do not willingly submit to them. A young man named Shad goes on a mission to get weapons and warriors to fight off Sador and his forces.

He assembles six unique individuals, including a vengeance seeking lizard man, a young scientist, a clone race, a haunted assassin, a beautiful warrior seeking glory, and a fun loving earth man. They all return to help the citizens of the planet.

If this sounds vaguely familiar, this Roger Corman film is a perfect example of Corman’s formula. Star Wars was a hit and had a sequel on it’s way. Corman wanted a Star Wars style film. He commission a script from John Sayles (who also wrote Corman’s Piranha). They opted to take the story from Seven Samurai and set it in space, just as the Magnificent Seven moved it to the old American West.

And the movie is not shy about this. The planet is named Akira, after Seven Samurai director Akira Kurosawa. The advertising for the film included phrases like “Seven Magnificent Warriors”. Robert Vaughn even plays a character much like his dark Lee, from the Magnificent Seven.

This film, while being a knockoff meant to cash in onStar Wars hype, actually stands pretty well on it’s own. A lot of this goes back to the strong cast. George Peppard is a more laid back Han Solo type as the space faring earth man Cowboy. The alien race the Nestors are an alien race of clones who are psychically linked. This allows for a lot of intended humor, such as when they are offered a hotdog and while only one of them eats it, all the Nestor’s can taste is, and one observes, “There is no dog in this”. After they recite the ingredients of a hot dog (determined by taste), Peppered cheerfully responds, “That’s what we call meat on Earth.”

Sybil Danning’s Saint Exmin the Valkerie is from a race that live only to fight in wars. And wear swimming suits (what, you think a Roger Corman film is not going to feature at least one buxom woman in a tiny outfit?!). Initially, Shad is annoyed and tries to chase her off, but she hangs on, proving herself in battle and winning Shad’s respect.

The film features work by James Cameron (as art director) and the designs go from very serious, such as Sador’s rather impressive ship to somewhat tongue in cheek. Shad’s ship has a smart talking female voiced AI. And the ship has breasts. I am not joking.

Seriously, Cameron…

And James Horner’s musical score is downright great. Battle Beyond the Stars is entertaining and downright fun as low budget Sci-Fi goes.

While there had been a two season TV series in the late 90’s, the Seven Samurai inspired franchise had remained quiet. Certainly, plenty of films have used the “group of gunslingers or outlaws step up to help people in need. It is one of the most popular western motifs. But it took until 2016 for it to come back to life.

Set in 1879, Tycoon Bartholomew Bogue has overtaken the town of Rose Creek. He owns the Sheriff and has had his men deputized. Forcing the people into labor, they are living in misery. After he has some of the towns people killed to “lay down the law”, they seek the help of Sam Chisolm, a U.S. Marshall. Chisolm starts recruiting people, starting with gambler Joshua Faraday, who is trying to get his horse back, but lacks funds. As they work their way back, they reach out to various individuals…a Mexican Outlaw named Vasquez, an old trapper named Jack Home. He also brings in former Confederate officer named Goodnight Robicheaux and his partner Billy Rocks. Finally, they bring in exiled Comanche Warrior Red Harvest.

This film has a very conscious eye towards diversity. Billy Rocks is a Korean immigrant skilled both with knives and guns. Chisolm is a black man. And even the Confederate is explicitly portrayed as “not the racist kind”. He clearly has a longstanding friendship with Chisolm and his relationship with Rocks is an equal partnership.

But this works in the favor of the film. These characters all come from desperately different backgrounds, but come together to form a solid unit that trusts each other. I found myself genuinely liking these characters. Granted, a certain amount of this is due specifically to the cast. Denzel Washington tends to bring a sense of authority to every role. Chris Pratt of course has a likeable sweet boyishness that tends to run through his roles. Byung-Hun Lee is just kind of a dashing hero type. You can always depend on D’Onofrio and Hawke to deliver terrific character performances.

And Peter Sarsgaard’s Bogue? He is a clear cut, unambiguous bad guy. He does not even see himself as the hero of his story. He just believes in “might makes right”. When we are introduced to him, he steps into a church and shows no sense of respect for the faith of the parishioners.

Overall, this film is quite exiting and smartly chose to create an entirely new set of “Seven”. It is also a bit darker and grittier. That is not to say it is not fun, it definitely has it’s moments of levity. I feel like the addition of a revenge element for one of the Seven was unnecessary, and even kind of undermines the idea of the willingness of these guys to sacrifice themselves for the town.

But director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Shooter and the Equalizer) delivers a pretty solid energetic modern western with the Magnificent Seven.

Tag: Seven Samurai

All Stand Together Pt 7 (Battle Beyond the Stars, 1980)

All Stand Together Pt 6 (Seven Samurai, 1954)

All Stand Together Pt 5 (The Magnificent Seven, 2016)