Fans of the original version, the classic 1960 Western staring Yul Brynner, know that it in fact had a Japanese film as its predecessor. Japanese film genius Akira Kuroswa made a massive three and a half hour historical action/ drama in 1954 called Seven Samurai which had such an impact on film lovers that now some 62 years we are still feeling the reverberations from that mighty blow.
But America has taken his vision and turned it into a great blood and guts shoot'um up. Yul Brynner changed the samurai into a gang of misfit gun men who go to the aid of a Mexican village. Brilliant American director Antoine Fuqua switches the scene to a small Western mining town in the US where the oppressor is a greedy, murderous thug disguising himself as an honest businessman.
