Angry Embassy: Japan
The Original: Akira Kurosawa’s Shichinin no Samurai aka Seven Samurai (1954), the epic story of a village beset by bandits who turn to seven masterless ronin for protection.
The Makeover: Kurosawa’s masterpiece was inspired by the Westerns of John Ford, so director John Sturges simply returned the favour.
It’s a remarkably faithful return bar the loss of the original's subtle vein of social comment. The biggest differences are a beefed-up role for chief villain Eli Wallach and the understandable decision to switch samurai swords for revolvers.
Moment You Know You're Watching A Hollywood Movie: If the irrepressible strains of Elmer Bernstein’s fanfare score don’t give the game away with seconds,you’re probably deaf.
If you are deaf (in which case, sorry for being a bit callous), try the Seven's sheer star-wattage: Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn…and the other two.
(Yeah, yeah, we know: Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz. But they're not exactly household names...)
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Comments
Orbish
Jan 22nd 2010, 11:34
No Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars/Last Man Standing?
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mitchsn
Jan 23rd 2010, 2:29
With the exception of 1 or 2, all the american remakes sucked a*s.
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sunnyrandall
Jan 25th 2010, 9:40
What about Haneke's Funny Games? Yeah, I know he directed both but . . . .
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jimclark54
Jan 25th 2010, 15:45
Seven Samurai -> Magnificent Seven -> Battle Beyond The Stars (writer: John Sayles, art director: James Cameron)
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Ihatethis
Jan 25th 2010, 18:33
La Femme Nikita = Point of No Return
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BaldMelon
Jan 25th 2010, 23:51
You forgot "Three Men and a Baby" and "Three Men and a Little lady" were originally French. Disney bought the North American distribution rights of the French sequel to cut down on competition. They also did the same thing for the Japanese version of "Shall We Dance". You can't even find it on DVD and it is a far superior film to the Richard Gere version. Oh, and shall we not forget the Jodie Foster/Richard Gere flop "Sommersby" is a watered down version of the French "The Return of Martin Guerre". Not to mention "La Femme Nikita"/"Point of No Return" and "Les Diaboluques"/"Diabolique", etc, etc...
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metalgatesolid
Jan 26th 2010, 20:26
The Grudge/Ring remakes where, I think we cn all agree, no where near as terrifying as the original versions. The biggest travesty in my eyes is Rec and Quarentine. Rec is amazing!!!
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tacroy
Feb 8th 2010, 14:03
Where is "The Invisable" on this list? It's a bad remake of the swedish movie "Den osynlige". And they even had to make a bad (and I mean really really bad) ending to it. They changed the whole outcome from the original one. Someone should be punished for that
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