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Jack Williams,
Jack Williams,
Yul Brynner,
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John Sturges,
John Sturges
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: MGM
: Politics and Social Issues, Westerns
: 128 min.
: English, Spanish, French
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Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai (1954) is westernized as The Magnificent Seven. Yul Brynner plays Chris, a mercenary hired to protect a Mexican farming village from its annual invasion by bandit Calvera (Eli Wallach). As Elmer Bernstein's unforgettable theme music (later immortalized as the "Marlboro Man" leitmotif) blasts away in the background, Chris rounds up six fellow soldiers of fortune to help him form a united front against the bandits. The remaining "magnificent six" are played by Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, and (the one that everybody forgets) Brad Dexter. Though jam-packed with action, William Roberts's screenplay pauses long enough to flesh out each of its characters, allowing the audience to pick their own favorites. The Magnificent Seven was followed by three sequels, not to mention dozens of imitations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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| Great for drunken movie night
by raphaelc
May 3, 2005 - 11:56 AM PDT
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1 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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| This movie may have been a serious action/drama when it was released, but now it's an exercise in hilarity. From the homoerotic dialogue and interactions between several of the main characters to the rigid, cliche gender roles of the Men and Women, the ketchup blood to the band of "dirty Mexicans" who terrorize a small town, this is a campy classic that just begs for audience commentary. |
| Not as good as I had hoped
by kamapuaa
May 16, 2004 - 11:44 PM PDT
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3 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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There's a great scene at the beginning where the leading two (of the seven) gunslingers slowly make their way to the cemetary, through a hostile crowd. And throughout, some of the acting is good - several of the actors went on to be iconic.
But I just didn't care for the movie after that. It's slow, there's too many scenes where where it seemed the director was killing time. And it felt too cheesy - something like a full-length episode of Bonanza. Cowboys wear clean bright pink shirts, and while the soundtrack was memorable and would have been great for another movie, it was too peppy for this one. Cowboys speak with clipped New England accents, and so do the Mexicans, although they also say "amigo" and "bueno" a lot.
I'm not the biggest fan of The Seven Samurai, but this movie was too much a simplistic, not-good remake, with nothing to recommend it over the original. Perhaps it's because I've seen the Serio Leone Spaghetti Westerns - Fistful of Dollars is a far better Western take on Kurosawa. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.25)
194 Votes
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| The Brits' 100 Favorite Films |
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| The 100 films with the highest attendance in British box office history. (This list reflects the popularity of the films rather than the growing price of movie tickets the way lists of the highest grossing movies do.) |
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