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A Magnificent Plot, Ryan Monk
A Magnificent Plot, Ryan Monk
Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies
Ever since Akira Kurosawa directed Shinchinin No Samurai in 1954, American filmmakers have repeatedly reused its plot, most recently in Antoine Fuqua's Magnificent Seven (2016). This paper uses Karl Marx and bell hooks to analyze the original film, John Sturges' Magnificent Seven (1960), and the remake to see how each filmmaker used the same structure to discuss class, race, and nationality in their respective locations and times. This paper also discusses the cinematography used to support those themes. Kurosawa made his epic in postwar Japan when the nation became pacifist, and the film examines the death of a warrior class …