İki Kültür, Bir Direniş: Yedi Samuray ve Yılanların Öcü Filmlerinde Adaletsizliğe Karşı Toplumsal Refleksin Analizi
Two Cultures, One Resistance: An Analysis of Social Reflexes Against Injustice in Seven Samurai and Revenge of the Snakes

Summary/Abstract: Two Cultures, One Resistance: Seven Samurai (1954) by Akira Kurosawa and Revenge of the Snakes (Yılanların Öcü, 1962) by Metin Erksan are examined through a comparative thematicphilosophical analysis to explore social responses to injustice in different cultural contexts. Both films center on structural inequalities faced by peasant communities and depict themes of justice, solidarity, and resistance within the individual–society–state triangle. In the Japanese feudal setting, the pursuit of justice is shaped by honor and warrior ethics, whereas in the rural Anatolian context it revolves around land rights and the struggle for fairness. Philosophical perspectives on justice and ethical responsibility including Plato’s notion of social order, Rawls’s principle of fairness, Arendt’s ideas on moral judgment and civil disobedience, Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power, and Kant’s ethics of duty inform the analysis. Emphasizing the nexus of cinema and philosophy, the study finds that both films illustrate how collective consciousness awakens and ethical responsibility emerges as a catalyst for social change when institutional justice is absent or ineffective. Both cinematic narratives demonstrate that justice can be achieved not only through laws, but also through moral agency, community solidarity, and culturally rooted values.

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