# Identify this Western **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 10, 2003, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-western/206635 "2003-10-10T07:21:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-western/206635/1 "2003-10-10T07:21:28Z")
…please. The opening scene has the Lone Wandering Gunfighter escort a wagon with body in a coffin to the burial grounds. Problem is the town doesn’t want him to be buried for some reason which I forgot and so he has to shoot his way through a couple of them. Maybe it has Clint, but I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Alex\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_B)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-western/206635/2 "2003-10-10T08:05:03Z")
Sounds very much like _The Magnificent Seven_, although that’s two lone gunfighters (Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen) teaming up to ensure a Native American is buried. I think they shoot a couple of the town thugs in their arms. Alex. ---
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-western/206635/3 "2003-10-10T08:17:07Z")
Thank you. I recently read a story which was a bad space opera rip off of The Magnificent Seven. It started with a burial scene which reminded me of a Western, but since it’s been sooooooo long since I saw TMS (something I will rectify soon) I couldn’t figure out which western. That and I didn’t think it was TMS because I couldn’t imagine that someone would rip off TMS so blatantly. The basic premise, fine, but a shot for shot swipe? Wow. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-western/206635/4 "2003-10-10T12:46:43Z")
The movie \*\*[Battle Beyond the Stars\*\*](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080421/) is a bad space opera rip off of _TM7_, which itself came from the Kurosawa, of course. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-western/206635/5 "2003-10-10T13:03:45Z")
Actually, **Battle Beyond the Stars** isn’t all that bad – some very entertaining moments and good script (by John Sayles) that knows it’s a ripoff and is having fun with it. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-western/206635/6 "2003-10-10T14:25:43Z")
Yep, The Magnificent Seven is a remake of Kurasawa’s The Seven Samurai. He’s acknowledged in the opening credits. But I don’t remember there being a funeral scene at the beginning of 7S. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-western/206635/7 "2003-10-10T23:33:05Z")
I believe both _The Magnificent Seven_ and _Battle beyond the Stars_ are acknowledged homages to _The Seven Samurai_ and that they paid royalties for the use of the plot, so the term “ripoff” is a little unfair. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2003, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-western/206635/8 "2003-10-11T05:38:12Z")
I’m hardly a copyright expert, but I have a hard time believing that _The Magnificent Seven_ or _Battle Beyond the Stars_ (or _A Bug’s Life_, or _Hawk the Slayer_ which were two additional _Seven Samurai_ “homages”, and not the last of them, either) would have to pay royalties for reusing the basic story, but drastically changing the names, characters, and settings. As far as I know, you can’t copyright ideas, only specific works of art. There was no funeral scene in _Seven Samurai_, however. Instead, there is a scene where a theif has taken a child hostage and is hiding in a shed. Kambei, an older samurai, shaves his head to pose as a monk and get close to the thief so he can kill him. In this context, a samurai shaving his head was roughly as iconoclastic as standing up (and gunning down) someone for anti-Indian bigotry. Obviously, the Kambei character was played by Yul Brenner in _The Magnificent Seven_.