John Hendrix, Staff Writer
This Thursday at 7 p.m., SCAD Cinema Circle will be showing Akira Kurosawa’s incredibly influential 3.5 hour historical epic “Seven Samurai” at the Trustees Theater.
“Seven Samurai” tells the story of seven ronin, or samurai without masters, who are hired to protect a village of farmers from an army of bandits. Over the course of their stay in the village, the samurai teach the villagers how to defend themselves before the bandits come back to assault the village in the climactic battle scene.
Along with a screening of the film, SCAD Cinema Circle will be hosting a live Q&A about the film with SCAD professors and graduate students. Audience members are encouraged to stay after the film for the Q&A and ask any questions they have about the film at this time.
“Seven Samurai” will be the first in SCAD Cinema Circle’s new year-long film series. The theme chosen for this year’s showings is “The Originals.” Over the course of the next year, the Cinema Circle will be showing the original versions of films that have been or are being remade. This includes films such as “Suspiria,” Jean Cocteau’s “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Magnificent Seven” and many more.
“Seven Samurai” is an appropriate way to begin this new run of films, as it is not only considered one of the greatest films of all time, but it has gone on to influence countless works of cinema. Such works include “The Magnificent Seven,” an American western re-telling of the original film and the much less successful “Battle Beyond the Stars,” a science-fiction adaptation of the film. Other films like “The Dirty Dozen,” “13 Assassins” and more were heavily influenced by “Seven Samurai” as they follow a similar story structure.
In fact, Akira Kurosawa’s entire collection of works has been a critical inspiration for modern cinema. Films like “The Hidden Fortress” would later inspire director, George Lucas in the creation of “Star Wars” and Sergio Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars” found itself in legal trouble after the studio failed to acquire the rights to remake Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo” but made the film anyway. This makes “Seven Samurai” or any of Akira Kurosawa’s works, a must see film for movie buffs.
“The Magnificent Seven,” the western remake of “Seven Samurai,” will also be shown at the Trustees Oct. 7. “The Magnificent Seven” itself was remade and released earlier this month, making it an interesting film to show for this year’s theme. SCAD Cinema Circle is showing “The Magnificent Seven” a week after “Seven Samurai” to help audience members understand the process with which Hollywood remakes foreign films.
Tickets to “Seven Samurai” and “The Magnificent Seven” are $8 or $5 if you are a student, senior, or member of the military. Tickets can be purchased at the box office outside of the Trustees, or can be found at savannahboxoffice.com.
The film is not rated, but includes profane language and violence.