Seven and Silverado -Kurosawa’s Title Influence on ’s Revival -

Author(s) DAVIES Brett,J

Citation 明治大学国際日本学研究, 9(1): 111-119

URL http://hdl.handle.net/10291/20645

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Issue Date 2017-03-31

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Type Departmental Bulletin Paper

DOI https://m-repo.lib.meiji.ac.jp/

Meiji University 111

【Research Note】

Seven Samurai and Silverado: Kurosawa’s Influence on Lawrence Kasdan’s Revival Western

DAVIES, Brett J.

Abstract Lawrence Kasdan was one of the most successful American filmmakers of the 1980s. His third work as director, Silverado (1985), has been credited with reviving the Western pic- ture after a decade of dormancy, eschewing 1970s revisionism for a more classic approach to the genre. However, this paper will argue that Kasdan may have been influenced more by ’s than by any Hollywood cowboy film. It will first ex- amine Kasdan’s style and concerns pre-Silverado, before outlining some of the similarities that samurai and Western films historically share. Finally, this paper will highlight some of the specific ways in which Kasdan’s Silverado paid homage to Kurosawa’s Seven Samu- rai, through plot, character and theme.

Keywords: Lawrence Kasdan, Akira Kurosawa, Silverado, Seven Samurai, Western film, genre

The Early Career of Lawrence Kasdan

In the early-1980s, Lawrence Kasdan was one of the most successful screenwriters work- ing in Hollywood. His first produced screenplay was (1980), widely regarded as the most interesting instalment in ’s series. This was fol- lowed by further work with Lucas, along with director , on (1981), a screenplay voted one of the “101 Greatest Screenplays” of all-time by the Writers Guild of America (2005). While both were mainstream summer releases aimed at younger audiences, neither conformed to the blockbuster stereotypes of happy endings and heroes saving the day. Instead, both films closed on surprisingly low-key scenes, something that would become emblematic in much of Kasdan’s later work. With backing from Lucas, Kasdan gained directorial control over his next script, (1981). A gritty neo-noir, it further showcased a penchant for ambiguity and downbeat 112 『明治大学国際日本学研究』第 9 巻第 1 号 （ 159 ） （ 158 ） endings, at odds with its surface sheen. Body Heat was a box-office hit lauded by critics, with Film Comment writer David Chute calling it “perhaps the most stunning debut movie ever” (Ebert, 1997). While continuing to contribute to the family-friendly Star Wars saga with the script for Return of the (1983), Kasdan’s other work dealt with more explicitly adult themes: his screenplay for the romantic comedy Continental Divide (1981) is a throwback to the Hepburn-Tracy films of the 1940s, combining a government corruption plot with the cen- tral love story. As director again, The Big Chill (1983, co-written with Barbara Benedek) was a “serious comedy” (Canby, 1983). While other Kasdan works up to this point could to some ex- tent be termed ensemble pieces, most notably his two Star Wars episodes, The Big Chill was his most marked example of such a film. In fact, following a computer analysis of over 500 American scripts, Hoyt, Ponto, and Roy concluded that “We have yet to find another ‘ensem- ble’ or ‘multi-character’ screenplay with such a tight range of presence levels for this many characters” (2014, p. 26). Following the story of seven former university colleagues reunited at a friend’s funeral, The Big Chill combines the smart dialogue for which Kasdan was already known with an increasingly assured visual flair, such as when the characters’ personalities are revealed through a bag-packing montage at the beginning of the film. The critical and commercial appeal of The Big Chill, coupled with his previous successes, made Kasdan one of the most in-demand American filmmakers of the time.

Themes and Patterns in Kasdan’s Early Work

Many of Kasdan’s early pictures, both as a writer and director, can be categorised as genre pieces. Grant (1986, p. ix) defines genre movies as “commercial feature films which, through repetition and variation, tell familiar stories with familiar characters in familiar situa- tions.” Examples of well-known Hollywood genres have included war films, gangster films, and Westerns. It could even be argued that, more than genre, Kasdan specialised in pastiche, what Neale called “generic self-consciousness” (2000, p. 255). The Empire Strikes Back and built on George Lucas’s original intention for Star Wars (1977) to revive the spirit of space fantasy serials such as Flash Gordon (1936) (Rinzler, 2007, pp 4-5), while Raiders of the Lost Ark drew on similar serials and featured a hard-bitten hero that paid homage to Hum- phrey Bogart’s character Dobbs in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) (Rinzler, 2008, pp. 19-21). Similarly, Body Heat used 1940s as its point of reference, with critics noting its echoes of the 1944 classic in particular (Ebert, 1997). As stated previously, Continental Divide gained inspiration in part from 1940s romantic comedies. The exception to this pattern was The Big Chill, which does not conform to any estab- （ 159 ） （ 158 ） Seven Samurai and Silverado: Kurosawa’s Influence on Lawrence Kasdan’s Revival Western 113

lished genre definition. Despite its outlier status at this juncture in Kasdan’s career, The Big Chill shared, and even encapsulated, many thematic strands first glimpsed in his earlier films. The aforementioned ensemble of close-knit friends in trying circumstances shared similarities with the Star Wars movies. More specifically, Nick’s unexplained impotence echoed Kasdan’s previous representations of emasculation both physical (Luke’s severed hand in The Empire Strikes Back and Darth Vader’s in Return of the Jedi) and metaphorical (Ned’s realisation in Body Heat that he was chosen as a fall guy precisely because of his ineffectuality; Indy’s re- peated haplessness in Raiders of the Lost Ark culminating in a denouement over which he had little influence). Additionally, female characters in The Big Chill featured more prominently than in the vast majority of mainstream American films at that time (Hoyt et al., 2014), while The Empire Strikes Back saw the only female lead in the series, Leia, graduate from ‘damsel in distress’ in the first film to becoming commander of a military base. Raiders of the Lost Ark and Continental Divide, too, contained strong women in active roles, which was still uncommon in the early 1980s. With Kasdan established by the middle of the decade as a writer-director of critically ac- claimed movies with commercial appeal, it was perhaps surprising that he would choose to make a Western next. At that time cowboy pictures were a rarity, having fallen out of favour since their heyday in the , when Westerns produced by Hollywood outnumbered every other genre combined (Indick, 2008, p. 2). In the 1980s, conversely, not a single cowboy film ap- peared in the list of top 100 highest grossing films in the (Internet Movie Data- base, 2016). But the reasons for Kasdan approaching such an unfashionable kind of film may actually have come not from his homeland, but from the East.

Cowboys and Kurosawa

The correspondence between that most American of genres, the Western, and the Japa- nese jidai-geki (period drama, or samurai film), has been widely discussed. There are, of course, the superficial similarities of historical setting, horses, and armed combat. McCoy observes that “the gunfight usually serves as the climax of the Western in the same way that a duel be- tween swordsmen serves as the climax in a Samurai film” (2014, p. 169). In spite of the cultural and geographical divide, there are strong thematic connections too: Yoshimoto points out that heroes in both are “social outsiders who restore order and help people fighting against the vil- lains while fully being aware that their virtuous action does not allow them to reintegrate themselves in a renewed social order” (2000, p. 231). In addition, both genres hark back to eras when the respective countries’ modern incarnations were being forged – many samurai mov- 114 『明治大学国際日本学研究』第 9 巻第 1 号 （ 157 ） （ 156 ） ies take place at the time when Japan was transitioning from a loosely linked collection of fief- doms to a more centralised nation state; while Westerns portray the European settlement of previously untamed American lands. Therefore, these films represent events and, more impor- tantly, values that were still held in high esteem during the genres’ heyday. In the twentieth century, the most famous Japanese among international au- diences and critics was Akira Kurosawa. After winning the at the 1951 , gained a worldwide release and overseas audiences became increas- ingly receptive to Kurosawa’s movies. This international success led to claims that Kurosawa was the most “Western” of Japanese filmmakers, a label that has been debated for half a cen- tury (Donovan, 2008, p. 30). According to his autobiography (1983), Kurosawa had indeed watched mostly American and European movies during his childhood (p. 36); and in his fore- word he expressed admiration for John Ford, director of some of the most iconic cowboy films, including Stagecoach (1939) and (1956), calling him “an illustrious master” (p. xii). However, little else in his memoir suggests that he was strongly influenced by American cine- ma, at least no more so than any other Japanese filmmaker of his era. Goodwin (1994) argued that this “Western” tag may have stemmed from Japanese scepticism over Kurosawa’s success abroad, which contradicted the notion that “Japanese culture is unintelligible to foreigners” (p. 55). Even when Kurosawa based (1961) on the American film noir The Glass Key (1942), this was interpreted as a response to critics at home rather than a preference of taste (Charpentier, 2010). Less controversial is Kurosawa’s obvious influence on American and European filmmak- ers, particularly those working in the Western genre. His international success led to explicit remakes of some of his more prominent works in the early : Yojimbo (itself an adapta- tion, as noted previously) became the Spaghetti Western (1964), Rashomon was reimagined as The Outrage (1964), and, most famously, the story of Seven Samurai (1954) was transferred to Mexico for (1960). As with the other remakes, ’s interpretation followed the narrative structure of the original quite faithfully, but made some notable concessions to the perceived needs of its American audience. Seven Samu- rai, for instance, features a love story between Katsushiro, the most naïve member of the group, and a village girl. This romance was ultimately doomed to fail due to their caste differ- ences – he a samurai, she a farmer’s daughter. But Sturges and screenwriter William Roberts made their equivalent character, Chico, the son of a farmer; thus a happy resolution between a couple of similar social standing was conveniently enabled (St. Jean, 2002, p. 80). So, while the basic structure of both movies remained consistent, the tone was subtly different, and The Magnificent Seven ended with an optimistic denouement to its romantic subplot. The Japanese （ 157 ） （ 156 ） Seven Samurai and Silverado: Kurosawa’s Influence on Lawrence Kasdan’s Revival Western 115

original, on the other hand, counterbalanced the earlier machismo of the battles scenes and verbal sparring between the samurai with Katsushiro’s heartbreak as he is finally, wordlessly, rejected by his lover. As well as these deliberate remakes, Kurosawa’s visual style was mimicked by many in Hollywood. His use of telephoto lenses, multi-camera set-ups and slow motion (the latter espe- cially prevalent in Seven Samurai) inspired, among others, Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde, 1967) and Sam Peckinpah (, 1969). Penn credited Kurosawa’s techniques for dictating the rhythm of the climactic gun battle in his crime drama, while Peckinpah later commented that he wanted to make Westerns like Kurosawa made Westerns (Prince, 1999, pp. 349–350). This veneration continued through the ’70s and ’80s as the new wave of film school-trained American directors such as George Lucas, John Milius and began to shape the Hollywood landscape. Many of these so-called ‘movie brats’ professed to be influ- enced by Kurosawa’s movies, with Lucas stating that his first viewing of Seven Samurai “basi- cally changed my life” (Lee, 2005). This sentiment was echoed by one of Lucas’s protégés, Lawrence Kasdan, when he called Kurosawa “the greatest director who ever lived” (Whitley, 2002).

Seven Samurai in Silverado

In 1985, Lawrence Kasdan (with his brother Mark as co-writer) made his most ambitious directorial feature yet. The big-budget adventure, Silverado, was read by many critics as an old-fashioned throwback to the cowboy pictures of the 1950s and ’60s, “a wholehearted embracing of Western traditions” (Freer, 2000). While it clearly owed a debt to such films, there were other influences too. Kasdan has often spoken of his regard for the work of Akira Kurosawa, whom he called “my greatest hero” and “the Shakespeare of movies” (August & Mazin, 2016). In particular, Kasdan has made plain his admiration for Seven Samurai, citing it as “the greatest example for anyone who is trying to learn about movies,” and claiming to have “seen it 15 or 20 times” (Whitley, 2002). Silverado paid homage perhaps more directly than any other of his films, be- fore or since. It is possible to see many similarities between the two movies even in the basic plot outlines. In both, fighting men are brought together by chance and an unspoken code of honour. They are then called upon to protect farmers from a gang of bandits and to free a town from those who seek to exploit the innocent. While these shared story elements are of interest, Kurosawa’s influence on Kasdan is more marked in the choices of character and 116 『明治大学国際日本学研究』第 9 巻第 1 号 （ 155 ） （ 154 ） theme. Silverado opens in a barn, the camera panning slowly over the familiar paraphernalia of the cowboy: saddle, lasso, boots, gun. At last the camera rests on Emmett, not in possession of any of these items as he sleeps. Suddenly, he is attacked by an armed gang, and the efficiency with which he dispatches these would-be murderers instantly marks him out as an experi- enced fighter. There are echoes here of Kambei’s introduction in Seven Samurai. He is first re- vealed cutting off his samurai top-knot as part of a ruse to rescue a child captured by a thief on the run. Swiftly and skilfully, Kambei enters a barn to kill the fugitive and save the young hostage. Both Kambei and Emmett possess a world-weariness, a realisation that even shorn of the physical symbols of their past, there is an inexorable draw to violence; it is their place in life is to fight, however terrible the consequences. Both films then follow these lead protagonists as they meet the other members of their groups, one-by-one. Seven Samurai was one of the first films to introduce an ensemble in such fashion, revealing aspects of each character not only through their actions, but also through camerawork and staging. For example, the good-natured but vulnerable Heihachi is first shown physically lower down, beneath his recruiter Gorobei’s gaze; and we first see the taci- turn outsider Kyuzo through a telephoto lens, with Kambei watching him from afar as he dis- plays his expert swordsmanship. In Silverado, Paden, the gentlest member of the group, is re- vealed at a distinct disadvantage, lying in the dirt after being robbed and left for dead. Mal, whose emotional journey will be fuelled by revenge, enters the scene from the distance. The camera is placed just behind Emmett and Paden, allowing the audience to learn about Mal just as the established characters do, and we share in their appreciation of Mal’s spirit and fighting skill after he is racially abused and attacked. There are shades of Kurosawa’s samurai within each of the cowboys in Kasdan’s film, but the most striking similarity in characterisation occurs between Seven Samurai’s Kikuchiyo and Silverado’s Jake. Toshiro Mifune’s performance is one of the most physical in cinema history. His facial tics, maniacal laugh and almost perpetual motion have an animalistic quality. Even in quieter moments he scratches himself as if terminally flea-bitten, or crouches, muscles taut, ready to spring into action at any second. This unpredictability of movement is matched by the character’s choices: he begs to join the group of ronin at the beginning of the film, then later chastises the samurai caste for their history of terrorising farmers; he laughs during a fe- rocious battle, but weeps openly for an orphaned baby who reminds him of his own past. In Silverado, ’s Jake channels many elements of Kikuchiyo’s personality. Both are a blend of the fierce warrior and the innocent. In the most robustly physical perfor- mance of Costner’s career, his character – just like Kikuchiyo – laughs at danger and yips like （ 155 ） （ 154 ） Seven Samurai and Silverado: Kurosawa’s Influence on Lawrence Kasdan’s Revival Western 117

a dog, at turns infuriating and amusing his comrades with his apparently carefree spirit. As if attempting to expend some of this boundless energy, he clambers on the bars of his jail cell, somersaults from the rafters of a barn, swings off ropes and leaps onto a horse. And, similar to the way that Kikuchiyo entertains the village children with his clowning, Jake connects with his young nephew Augie, teaching him his trick of jumping onto a horse and leading the res- cue when the boy is kidnapped. Kasdan shares a sensibility with Kurosawa, too, in his representation of the land and na- ture. Both directors are happy to let the camera linger on wide vistas of mountains, or in close-up on the lush grass and barley as they rustle in the wind. Weather plays a part in each film too. The major battle sequence in Seven Samurai takes place in driving rain (a weather condition usually avoided by other filmmakers of the era), adding to its sense of tangible bru- tality, while the key moments of Katsushiro’s romance – the innocence of his first meeting Shi- no, then her final rejection of him – are set in brilliant sunshine. Silverado opens in the heat of the desert, then moves through snow and icy waters. The white peaks of mountains in the background, the heavy winter clothes, and the posture of the actors, hunched against the cold, lend an authenticity seldom seen in previous Westerns and help connect the film more closely to its environment. And in both movies, the protagonists are warriors, yet they appear to yearn for the simplicity of a settled farm life, living off the land. The last words of Seven Samu- rai, spoken by Kambei, are: “We’ve lost yet again. With their land, the farmers are the victors, not us.” In Silverado, Paden is drawn to one of the settlers, Hannah. At his clumsy attempt to win her affections by remarking on her beauty, she replies, “After a while I won’t be so pretty, but this land will be.” When the action in each film shifts to the village and town, there is a shared clarity of sto- rytelling. Kasdan has complimented this aspect of Seven Samurai, saying, “There is this amaz- ing sense of place when the samurai are in the village – you feel that you know every corner of it. The images are great, but above all everything is clear.” (Whitley, 2002). The town of Sil- verado (a set built especially for the movie) is similarly well-defined. Each building is posi- tioned so as to physically relate to another, allowing the audience to feel a palpable sense of geography. The Kasdan brothers’ screenplay fleshes out every character, too, leading usto understand each player’s motivations in this ensemble story. Few multi-protagonist action films made by Hollywood have achieved this goal as effectively. Thematically, Silverado echoes Seven Samurai with its undercurrent of fatalism. In each film, the protagonists at once struggle against their roles in life, while also embracing them as inevitable. Katsushiro’s doomed love in Seven Samurai is perhaps most emblematic of this con- flict. He begs Kambei to become his master, so desperate is he to be accepted as a samurai; 118 『明治大学国際日本学研究』第 9 巻第 1 号 （ 153 ） （ 152 ） yet it is this very position that prevents him from gaining lasting love. Kikuchiyo, for all his bravado, is eventually found out to be a farmer’s son, and is the only one who can fully em- pathise with the villagers’ plight, almost against his better judgement. Kambei’s final speech is notable in his acceptance of the situation: four comrades are dead, and despite completing the mission, he knows the samurai can never be the true victors. Nothing will change. While the caste system of feudal Japan was quite different from America in the 1800s, Sil- verado’s protagonists seem equally tied to their positions. After defeating their enemies, Em- mett and Jake continue their intended journey to California, both leaving potential romantic interests behind. Mal resumes his plan to work his family’s nearby land, becoming a farmer again, just like his dead father. Paden also stays in the area and, despite attempting to put the violent nature of his past behind him, becomes the new sheriff of Silverado. While their victory is less pyrrhic than that of Kurosawa’s samurai, it appears that for the cowboys of Silverado, too, their future is already written.

Conclusion

Lawrence Kasdan’s films as writer and director, both before and after Silverado, have proven that he is adept at handling a variety of cinematic styles. Indeed, Silverado has been credited with reviving the Western genre (Freer, 2000). However, its lineage appears to have more in common with Seven Samurai than any American movie. While possessing many of the qualities one would expect from a Kasdan film, such as a strong ensemble, close family bonds, and emasculation, it also shares many of the concerns that drove Seven Samurai: honour among warriors in a time of uncertainty, the desire for adventure versus the yearning for a home, and an appreciation for nature. Silverado serves both as a worthy attempt at a genre that had fallen out of favour in 1980s Hollywood, and as an homage to Seven Samurai, and Kurosawa’s influence continues to be present in Kasdan’s films. For example, his screenplay for his 2015 Star Wars instalment, Awakens (co-written with J.J. Abrams), touches on similar issues: the pull of duty, the conflict between freedom and security, and the search for a home and a family. Kasdan’s later works still share many of the themes associated with Kurosawa, but none as faithfully and fully as Silverado.

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