"The Role of the Elder"

Seven Samurai, Magnificent Seven, and Sholay have scenes where when the villagers reach a point of confusion with what to do about the bandits that terrorize them, they turn to the elder to guide them in what to do next. The idea of the 'elder' character works on many levels, the most important being that throughout time the elder has represented being wise, and thus seeking wisdom about anything, be it a small or large issue, the elder has the experience and knowledge to be helpful. Take for example in Kurosawa's story, as the old man listens to mass panic, he is steady and sure, having experienced his village once burned to the ground, he had seen another village survive by hiring samurai, and thus tells his people to apply the same lesson. Even further when they panic about not being able to support samurai, since they're only farmers growing small crops, he tells them to find hungry samurai, as "even bears come out of the forests, when they're hungry." Notice the anecdotal wisdom, prevalent in the 'wise elder' character-type.

In Magnificent Seven, the villagers know right away to "ask the old man". Although he makes his case a lot simpler, that although the villagers don't know how to use guns, that they must hire guns at the border, and that they will learn to fight, or die. This character is less developed, but his conviction for what the villagers must do makes his wisdom in someways more matter of fact.

Sholay is the largest departure from the previous two examples, having actually shown the backstory of the 'elder' character, and thus giving a visual que to represent the good natured bandits, Veeru and Jai, that the town will hire to help them against Gabbar. It is because we've seen how these bandits interact with Thakur when he is vulnerable in the flashback sequence, that the officer whom he is speaking to, and also who the viewer is taking the perspective of, can know that both Veeru and Jai are trustworthy.