The Magnificent Seven
1960  NR  WESTERN  2h 8min
CAST— Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach, Horst Buchholz, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter
MUSIC— Elmer Bernstein  DIRECTOR— John Sturges

     Entertaining feel-good Western that gets its inspiration from a surprising source: the Japanese film Seven Samurai (1954), which was in turn inspired by American Westerns. Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen head up the cast as two quick-draw drifters with hearts of gold. They are contacted by a tiny Mexican village in need of hired guns; their people have been under oppression by a band of marauders who steal their very means of living. Brynner and McQueen sign on and recruit as many men as they can to join the fight (only five more men will join the party). Upon arrival they find a hamlet full of farmers willing to fight but with no knowledge of how to do so. It looks like our heroes have a lot of work to do. They begin to train these spirited men in the ways of war, hoping that they may turn the tide in the days to come. Retains the action yet lacks the humor of the Japanese original. Still, worth your while if you’re in a Western-y mood. Later developed into a television series. Deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry.
OUR RATING— ** ½
ORIGINAL— Seven Samurai (1954)
REMADE AS— The Magnificent Seven (2016)
FOLLOWED BY— Return of the Seven (1966), Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969), The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)