The Magnificent Seven

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The Magnificent Seven
Image:Magnificent original.jpg
Directed by John Sturges
Produced by John Sturges
Written by William Roberts
Starring Yul Brynner
Eli Wallach
Steve McQueen
Charles Bronson
Robert Vaughn
James Coburn
Horst Buchholz
Brad Dexter
Music by Elmer Bernstein
Cinematography Charles Lang
Editing by Ferris Webster
Distributed by United Artists
Release date(s) Image:Flag of the United States.svg October 23, 1960
Running time 128 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $3,000,000
Followed by Return of the Seven (1966)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Magnificent Seven is a 1960 western film directed by John Sturges about a group of hired gunmen tasked with protecting a Mexican village from bandits. It is based on Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film, Seven Samurai.

Contents

[edit] Plot

A Mexican village is periodically raided by a gang of bandits led by Calvera (Eli Wallach). As he and his men ride away from their latest visit, Calvera promises to return.

Desperate, the village leaders travel to a border town to buy guns to defend themselves. They approach a veteran gunslinger, Chris (Yul Brynner), for help. He tells them that guns alone will not do them any good; they are simple farmers, not fighters. They then ask him to lead them, but Chris rejects them, telling them that a single man is not enough. They keep at him though, and he eventually gives in. He recruits men, though the pay is only a pittance.

Image:Sturges3.jpg
Brynner, McQueen, Buchholz, Bronson, Vaughn, Dexter, Coburn: The Magnificent Seven

First to answer the call is the hotheaded, inexperienced Chico (Horst Buchholz), but he is rejected. Harry Luck (Brad Dexter), an old friend of Chris, joins because he believes Chris is actually looking for treasure. Vin (Steve McQueen) signs on after going broke from gambling. Other recruits include Bernardo O'Reilly (Charles Bronson), Britt (James Coburn), fast and deadly with his switchblade, and Lee (Robert Vaughn), who is on the run and needs someplace to lay low until things cool down. Chico trails the group as they ride south, and is eventually allowed to join them.

Upon reaching the village, they begin training the residents. As they work together, the gunmen and villagers begin to bond. Chico finds a woman he is attracted to, Petra (Rosenda Monteros).

Calvera returns and is disappointed to find that the villagers have hired gunmen. After a brief exchange, the bandits are chased away. Later, Chico spies on the outlaws and returns with the grim news that Calvera and his men are planning to return--the outlaws are broke and starving, and need the crops from the village just to survive.

The seven debate whether they should leave, but decide to remain. They make a surprise raid on the bandit camp, but find it empty. Returning, they are ambushed by Calvera's men, who have taken over the village. Their lives are spared, as Calvera fears others coming for revenge if the Americans are killed; they are disarmed and escorted out of the village.

All of Chris' group except Harry decide to finish the job the next morning. During the ensuing battle, Harry returns to rescue Chris, and is mortally wounded. Bernardo is killed protecting some children he had befriended; Lee and Britt are also slain. Seeing the gunmen's bravery, the villagers grab whatever they can use as weapons and join the battle. The bandits are routed. Calvera himself is shot by Chris; puzzled, he asks why a man like Chris came back, but dies without receiving an answer.

As the three survivors leave, Chico decides to stay with Petra. Chris and Vin ride away, pausing briefly at the graves of their fallen comrades. Chris observes, "Only the farmers won. We lost. We always lose."

[edit] Cast

[edit] Differences from Seven Samurai

Although The Magnificent Seven is modeled so closely on Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai that they share even some dialogue (in different languages), there are several notable differences:

  • Samurai's villagers are sent to town to hire swordsmen. In this remake, the villagers are sent to town to buy guns. Chris tells them that guns won't be enough, and that they'll need to hire gunmen. As in the original, the hired men teach the villagers how to defend themselves, and the villagers take an active role in the fighting.
  • A scene in which the villagers capture and then torture to death one of the bandits is omitted entirely.
  • Most of the seven samurai had never met before; prior to meeting for their job, Kambei only knew Shichiroji. However, Chris Adams seems to know most of the gunmen except for Vin, Chico, and Bernardo (who was recommended by Harry).
  • Chris Adams's introduction is markedly different from Kambei's. In the original, Kambei makes his first impression on the farmers by pretending to be a monk in order to rescue a child taken captive by a bandit. In this film, Chris and Vin come to the farmers' attention by taking a dead Native American to be buried at a local cemetery, over the objections of some local townspeople.
  • Katsushiro, the aspiring young samurai, and Kikuchiyo, the would-be samurai whose hatred for the farmers hides a painful past, are combined into the single character, Chico. Unlike Kikuchiyo, Chico is not killed at the climax of the film. Chico is given Kikuchiyo's pivotal moment halfway through the film, in which he chastises the farmers for reacting to the samurai with fear, yet still expecting to receive their protection.
  • In the original, the samurai make a pre-emptive strike against the bandits' campsite, losing one of their own in the process. Thus, when the bandits attack the village, the samurai are short one man, and three more are killed in the battles. In this version, that attack takes place after Calvera's band are initially driven off, and they find that the camp is abandoned. In both films, three of the seven survive.
  • The bandit leader Calvera plays a much larger role than any of the unnamed bandits in the original.
  • Chico and Katsushiro both fall in love with a farmer's daughter. In Seven Samurai, the farmer's daughter refuses to return Katsushiro's affections once the fighting is over. In The Magnificent Seven, Chico stays behind to be with her.

[edit] Production

Filming began on March 1, 1959, on location in Mexico, where both the village and the U.S. border town were built for the film. The first scene shot was the first part of the six gunfighters' journey to the Mexican village, prior to Chico being brought into the group.

The film shares three of its stars (Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn), its director and producer (John Sturges), its composer (Elmer Bernstein), and an uncredited screenwriter (Walter Newman) with The Great Escape (1963).

[edit] Cinematographic process

Further information: CinemaScope

The cinematographic process used in this film was anamorphic. This process was first developed in the 1940s but did not become widely used until the 1960s. In essence, a film with an anamorphic aspect ratio appears wider (more panoramic) than when shot and projected at a ratio of 4:3 (width:height), which had been the industry standard until wide-screen formats gained popularity. This change was largely intended to give the cinema a look that would further distinguish it from -- and give a competing edge over -- television (which used the 4:3 format).

[edit] Sequels, television series

The film's success inspired three sequels:

None of these were as successful as the original film. The film also inspired a television series, The Magnificent Seven, which ran from 1998 to 2000.

[edit] Score

The film's score along with the famous main theme is by Elmer Bernstein. The score was nominated for an Academy Award in 1961.

Later, the theme was used in commercials for Marlboro cigarettes prior to the cigarette ad ban and Victoria Bitter beer. The theme was cheekily included in the James Bond film Moonraker (also from United Artists). Other uses include a passage on an album by the rock band Yes in the early 1970s; in the 2005 film The Ringer; as entrance music for the British band James, as well as certain episodes of The Simpsons that had a "western" theme (mainly in the episode entitled "Dude, Where's My Ranch?").

[edit] Pop-culture references

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • The most well-known tribute to the movie is Auf Wiedersehen Pet (1983-2005), primarily in its second series, where all the characters decide upon which of the seven their personalities would fit. They have been commonly known in the media as "The Magnificent Seven".
  • Robert Vaughn (Lee) later played the recurring character Judge Oren Travis in the television series The Magnificent Seven (1998).
  • Vaughn would also would play the character Gelt in Roger Corman's 1980 film Battle Beyond the Stars, essentially The Magnificent Seven given a science fiction makeover. The character is clearly an update of Lee from the earlier film, even to the extent that much of Gelt's dialogue is carried over, near-verbatim, from The Magnificent Seven.
  • Stephen King's Dark Tower series is acknowledged by the author to have been influenced by Sturges' film, as well as its antecedent Seven Samurai. In particular, the fifth book in the series, Wolves of the Calla, borrows heavily from the themes and plotlines from the films. In this book the town defended by the series' "gunslingers" is named "Calla Bryn Sturgis" in homage to both John Sturges and Yul Brynner.
  • The final episode of the first season of the British comedy Blackadder, The Seventh Seal, features the main character (played by Rowan Atkinson) assembling seven evil-doers to overthrow the king. Blackadder and other characters parody this film by signalling the number of men who have been recruited with their fingers, as Chris and Vin do throughout the first half of this film.
  • In Westworld, written and directed by Michael Crichton, Yul Brynner played an android impersonating his black-dressed gunfighter role as "Chris Adams".
  • There have also been adaptations of the film's plot, notably in a German Karl May movie called Thunder at the Border (Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand) (1966), and in the science fiction movie Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), in which Robert Vaughn reprised his role from The Magnificent Seven.
  • It also inspired the Bollywood (India) film 'Sholay' which went on to become the second longest running film in Indian cinema history.
  • In the European version of the Playstation 2 Videogame "Ape Escape 3", the monkeys are filming a movie called "The Magnificent Monkeys", almost surely a parody of The Magnificent Seven.
  • The hit 1980s television series The A-Team was initially conceived as a cross between The Magnificent Seven and The Dirty Dozen. Interestingly, James Coburn was reportedly considered for the role of The A-Team's leader, Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith. The role went to George Peppard - who was initially chosen to play Vin in The Magnificent Seven.
  • Episodes 131 to 133 of the anime series Hokuto no Ken 2 (Fist of the North Star in English) features a group of cowboys modeled after the titular characters from the film known as the Kouya no shichi-nin ("The Wasteland Seven"), which is the Japanese title of the film.
  • The Egyptian movie Shams El Zanaty starring Adel Emam is based on the plot of The Magnificent Seven, with an Egyptian village instead of a Mexican one.
  • James Coburn took the role of Britt because it was based on his favorite character from Seven Samurai.
  • The Disney/Pixar animated movie A Bug's Life is loosely based on this plot.

[edit] External links

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The Magnificent Seven


v • d • e
John Sturges
1940sThe Man Who Dared - Shadowed - Alias Mr. Twilight - For the Love of Rusty - Keeper of the Bees - The Sign of the Ram - Best Man Wins - The Walking Hills
1950sThe Magnificent Yankee - The Capture - Mystery Street - Right Cross - Kind Lady - The People Against O'Hara - It's a Big Country (with Clarence Brown, Don Hartman, Richard Thorpe, Charles Vidor, Don Weis and William A. Wellman) - The Girl in White - Jeopardy- Fast Company - Escape from Fort Bravo - Bad Day at Black Rock - Underwater! - The Scarlet Coat - Backlash - Gunfight at the O.K. Corral - The Law and Jake Wade - The Old Man and the Sea - Last Train from Gun Hill - Never So Few
1960sThe Magnificent Seven - By Love Possessed - Sergeants 3 - A Girl Named Tamiko - The Great Escape - The Satan Bug - The Hallelujah Trail - Hour of the Gun - Ice Station Zebra - Marooned
1970sJoe Kidd - Chino - McQ - The Eagle Has Landed
sw:Magnificent Seven

cs:Sedm statečných de:Die glorreichen Sieben es:Los siete magníficos fr:Les Sept Mercenaires it:I magnifici sette he:שבעת המופלאים hu:A hét mesterlövész ja:荒野の七人 nds:The Magnificent Seven pl:Siedmiu wspaniałych pt:The Magnificent Seven ru:Великолепная семёрка (фильм) fi:Seitsemän rohkeata miestä sv:7 vågade livet zh:豪勇七蛟龍

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