Though largely forgotten today, the 1960 American Western film titled The Magnificent Seven, directed by John Sturges and set in the 19th century, is a remake of an epic samurai action film Seven Samurai directed by Akira Kurosawa set in 1586 in Japanese history. Its radial displacement of time and space invites a series of questions about the roles of weapons. In the original film peasants have no access to weapons for self-defense and seven samurais with swords guard villagers. Kurosawa deliberately depicts peasants as helpless and unable to fight, though in historical actuality, at the point of 1586, Japanese peasants could arm themselves with swords. The 1960 adaption The Magnificent Seven, based on a faithful reproduction of the original, added a layer of complexity to the narrative by turning helpless Japanese peasants into Mexican villagers who bear arms to fight with seven American gunmen.
Critics such as J. L. Anderson, who contrast and compare American gunfighters with Japanese samurais, somewhat downplay the agency of the anonymous Mexican people fighting with guns. However, I would argue that a different reading is possible by placing their relationship with weapons within American gun culture that changed and reinforced the images of guns as weapons for equality and democracy. I discuss the ways in which American gun culture functions as an informing context for self-defense of Mexican villagers by bringing an analysis of materials on gun industry to bear on the reading of The Magnificent Seven and weapons.

Authors:
Ayaka Haeno, University of Tsukuba, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Ms. Ayaka Haeno is a graduate student of Modern Culture Studies at University of Tsukuba and researching the influence of American gun culture on women's gun ownership, especially African-American women.

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