Hopefully I searched enough before starting this.
I’m watching The Magnificent Seven for perhaps the 30th or so time. It still holds up.
Magnificent score by Elmer Berstein. Everyone knows it’s the Marlboro theme.
When I play trivia, I always ask them to name the actors in the movie. NO one ever gets Brad Dexter.
Sorry to just blather on, but so many movies from the 1950’s-60’s just don’t hold up. This one does.
I think it’s on AMC, which I hate for the commercials.
Just finished watching it. Still great. I’m bummed more of the seven didn’t survive wounded. Robert Vaughn …see ya Brad Dexter. didn’t like the way he bought it but didn’t miss him. I wanted James Coburn and Bronson to survive.
I’m still pissed off at those three little boys.
“Bernardo! Sorry we got you shot.”
I have to say, after finally seeing “Seven Samuri” it’s even better.
As opposed to say Battle Beyond the Stars, also starring Robert Vaughn.
You know, that’s one of those movies I’ve never seen. I’m almost as old as the movie and I’ve just never taken the time. I probably should see it just to see what all the fuss is about.
I did not know that was a remake of SS and MS. Cool. It’s got John Saxon in it too who was a favorite of mine from that era.
I’d wager the SS , the original, is still the best.
The original film from which this was remade, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, was recently ranked #1 in Empire Magazine’s 100 Best Films Of World Cinema.
And that’s why I like “The Magnificent Seven” - it’s not cinema, or film.
It’s a movie.
Yeah, I was pleased to watch it again too.
I was struck by an odd thought this time. For some reason, Yul Brynner’s performance was reminding me of someone else, and I couldn’t think of who it was. And then it hit me: Michael Dorn as Worf in Star Trek: TNG. I know, it’s bizarre, but…
Great movie, great director. John Sturges, also responsible for Bad Day at Black Rock, Last Train from Gun Hill, The Great Escape and The Eagle Has Landed.
Robert Vaughan used to tell some hilarious stories about the rivalry on the set of the Seven between Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen, as did Eli Wallach in his autobiography. These gems from IMDB:
I had never watched this movie until a couple of years ago. I was three years old when it came out, and even though I watched a lot of western movies in later life, I never got around to the Magnificent Seven until recently. That’s a real test of how well a movie holds up, I had no fondness of it from when I saw it as a kid. Yeah, I’d always heard it was good, but I’m a super-critical movie watcher, so I judged it on its own merit.
It’s now one of my favorite movies, and I think it’s one of the greatest western movies ever made. The scene of Brynner and McQueen riding the hearse is just incredible in the way it tells you so much about those characters without any exposition. Just the “Where you from?” “Where you headed?” conversation speaks volumes.
Alpha Twit, I highly recommend that you see it.
The movie sequels were pretty disappointing (especially the one where George Kennedy tries to step into the Yul Brynner role. Nothing against George, but who the hell thought that was good casting?). But anyone who likes the original movie should definitely check out the short-lived TV series from the late '90s starring Michael Biehn as Chris and Eric Close as Vin. The series did a great job of capturing the spirit and tone of the movie, staying reasonably close the characterizations while also expanding on them.
I think Seven Samurai and the original Magnificent Seven are both great movies. The storyline of a small force fending off superior numbers seems ageless, but this particular format of a group of specialists formed for the task is a subclass of the genre. Does anybody know of the use of this plot form prior to Samurai?
It’s a fun movie. A lot more light-hearted than SS, for sure, though I will always love SS best.
As for the dead, I get the feeling almost that they got close to the end of the movie and thought “Wait! Only three samurai survived! Therefore more of you have to die!”
Thanks to Netflix, I just did see it. My opinion - meh. I tend not to be much of a fan of westerns anyway so it’s neither very surprising nor very meaningful that I didn’t care for it.
One way that movies often fail for me is that they fail the plausibility check. Too many scenes in the Magnificent Seven just struck me as being so wrong that I couldn’t really get into the movie. The blowhard that Coburn kills in his first scene is a good example. Would any rational person push a fatal confrontation for essentially no reason? Calvera’s casual brutality clashes with his choice to ‘pardon’ the seven so that they can come back and win the day. Yul Brynner’s dialogue was almost cringe worthy much of the time.
I’m glad I did finally watch it but I see no reason to include it in my future viewing plans.
My beef with the Coburn scene is the same complaint I have with every knife fight on film: people dying too quickly. Hell, the guy he poked took maybe 3 inches of a narrow blade to his lower abdomen, and he falls down dead almost instantly. If that wound was mortal, it would be due to peritonitis, which would take days to kill. A tough cowboy like that should have been able to shrug off the poke and shoot Coburn dead.
aldiboronti, those are some trivia gems, especially the two you quoted. As a big McQueen fan it cracks me up to picture him doing that. I must say thinking of those will provide a bit of added charm the next time I see the movie.