If there is one
thing better than a western about a hero riding into town to save the day and fight
the bad guy, it’s seven heroes riding into town to fight a whole army of bad
guys. It was a genius idea for Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and it worked equally well for American audiences in
1960 when John Sturges remade the movie as The
Magnificent Seven with seven gunslingers instead of samurais. As a western
it is somewhat dated by today’s standards, but it did achieve history by having
some of the biggest stars of the time riding together into adventure.
This film was
made before Sergio Leone changed the game for Westerns with his Man with No
Name trilogy and also with Once Upon a
Time in the West. I enjoyed those movies immensely years before watching The Magnificent Seven on Netflix last
March so by comparison John Sturges’ movie seems a bit tame in terms of the
violence and themes. However I certainly know who Yul Brenner and Steve McQueen
are so seeing them together in the same movie is a must for any movie fan. Plus
at the time I was in Alberta, so what better place to watch a classic Western
than in the actual West?
Elli Wallach, who
would go on to play another memorable Western villain, is the man responsible
for getting the Magnificent Seven to band together in the first place. His
character Calvera is an outlaw who makes regular pit stops in a Mexican town
with the rest of his gang who take whatever from the poor villagers before
heading in the country with the promise of always coming back for more. Faced
with the difficult choice of either abandoning their town of fighting the
bandidos themselves, the villagers decide to amass whatever money they have and
head to America to buy weapons.
Of course a bunch
of untrained villagers would have next to no chance against a gang of heavily
armed bandits. What these guys need are gunslingers to do the shooting for
themselves, which is exactly what Chris, or hero number one, suggests after
hearing their story. For what little pay they have to offer, the villagers
attract a diverse cast who each have their own reasons for jumping in the
saddle.
Harry Luck (Brad
Dexter) is convinced Chris is only taking the job because there must be gold in
them’ Mexican hills; Vin (Steve McQueen) is broke and doesn’t want to work as a
clerk; Bernardo O’Reilly (Charles Bronson) is an Irish-Mexican who has also
fallen on hard times; and Britt (James Coburn) is handy with a knife and will
take the job just for the challenge. The two wildcards are the inexperienced
Chico (Horst Bulchholz) who grew up in similar Mexican village, and gunman Lee
(Robert Vaughn) who fears he doesn’t have it in him to pull the trigger
anymore.
Despite the low
pay, the odds being against them, and their own personal demons, the
Magnificent Seven ride off into adventure to the tune of Elmer Bernstein’s
iconic theme. The whole thing feels unapologetically heroic, with the seven men
coming into town to help the poor helpless villagers and bonding with them.
Even greedy Harry gets a big moment of redemption by riding into town guns
blazing at the 11th hour when all seems to be lost.
But oh, so what?
Not every Western needs to be about the effect of violence like Clint
Eastwood’s Unforgiven. Sometimes it
can simply be about the good guys coming to save the innocents from the bad
guys and then riding off into the sunset before the credits start rolling. There
is certainly nothing wrong with that.
Furthermore, even
if you are not a fan of Westerns, the movie is a gift for film lovers as it
provides them with a fun challenge every time they want to kill some time at a
bar. Quick, who can name all of the Magnificent Seven in ten seconds or less?
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