The Seven's Video: Response

For our video Dylan, Brandon and I decided to focus on the scenes from The Seven Samurai (1954), The Magnificent Seven (1960) and Sholay (1975) in which our heroes are first introduced. In all three films, the introduction of these charters is important because it does a large part in characterizing not only the heroes, but also the overarching epic nature of the stories.

In each film, our heroes of the story are presented as people in society who are both respected for their power, but feared for it as well. They are individuals who are not always moral in the strictest sense, but always endeavor to do what is right or honorable according to their moral compass. In all cases, the individuals are feared because they not only hold a talent and strength for fighting and protecting others that is unrivaled, but also, as paraphrased from Sholay (1975), know how to fight back. It is this power to fight back that gives them their mystique, however it is this same power and otherness that also makes them vulnerable. Because of their lines of work all of the heroes from our films are also put into positions of vulnerability. Their unyielding passion for living differently than what is culturally a normal life is the impetus for their coming to aid of the villagers. Because they are nomadic, they have no family, and thus nothing to lose. In each film the main reason they agree to aid in the fight is for material incentives (food, money), but the heroes are also characterized by their seemingly interminable drive to follow through on their promises and help the villagers win.

The introduction of our main heroes plays a big role in their characterization because in all three instances we are given a view of their skills and bravery. In The Seven Samurai (1954) we are introduced too Kambei through his daring and clever rescue of a young boy. In The Magnificent Seven (1960), we are introduced to Chris and Vin by their clam show of bravery and moral in taking on four gun men to bury an Indian in a white cemetery. And in Sholay (1975) we are introduced to Veeru and Jai in a dramatic fight scene where they effortlessly take on train hijackers and risk their own freedom to save the life of a police officer. For our project we wanted to take those scenes and cut them into one another to find out what we could create by placing them together into one scene. In our version, the ways the clips are organized emphasizes the heroism and drama of the three scenes. The clips we chose focus on the bravery of our heroes, the admiration and awe of the on lookers at the extraordinary talent of the men, and the skills our heroes possess. The over all effect of our video highlights the skill and power of our heroes, and the traditionally masculinity of movies, which fit into these themes or ideas. Interestingly enough, although there are major differences in mood and basic plot in all three films, the basic plot idea originally shown in The Seven Samurai is held up in these three scenes, enough so that our video has a linear plot throughout. This is interesting, especially considering that this story is so well transposed into different cultures and time periods, working both independently and apropos their story predecessors.

-Annie Sullivan