Director: John Sturges
Writer: William Roberts (Screenplay)
Starring: Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James Coburn
Plot: An oppressed Mexican peasant village hires seven gunfighters to help defend their homes.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Good Americanised Remake
Story: The Magnificent Seven starts as the small Mexican town gets visited and raided by Calvera (Wallach) and his men, they promise to back again for more too. Worried about the future of their village the town goes in search for a defence against the raiders and find seven cowboys, Chris Adams (Brynner), Vin Tanner (McQueen), Chico (Buchholz), Bernardo O’Reilly (Bronson), Lee (Vaughn) Harry Luck (Dexter) and Britt (Coburn) who all come for different reasons.
The gunmen set up a defensive line ready to do battle as the town is ready to go to battle against the Calvera and his men, who will come out on top in this battle to protect a small town.
Thoughts on The Magnificent Seven
Characters/Performance – The seven gunmen all have different reasons for going to this town, but the one thing they all have in common if just how deadly they are with a weapon which is the most important characteristic needed for our characters. Calvera is the villain of the piece and easily a great by the book villain needed for this film.
Performance wise, instead of going through all the actors it would be fair to say each and every one of the cast does a great job in the roles they are playing.
Story – The story one a small group of gunmen protecting a small town from raiders is a remake of the Seven Samurai, which was one of the most popular films ever made. This version brings the story to the American audience dealing with the cowboys battles which does work but doesn’t change the formula to make anything complicated for the audience.
Action/Adventure/Western – The action is all big cowboy style which works for the film, the music adds to the adventure side of the film which is fun through a situation that is darker. The western theme also works because it makes it easy to relate to for the American audience.
Settings – The settings are simple but effective for the film as we know we will be in the old west for this battle.
Final Thoughts – This is yet another classic film that took me time to watch and it gave us a mega cast of big names, simple to follow story and a western worth watching.
Overall: Classic western fun.
Rating
