[Homepage] [Reviews 1 to 10] [Reviews 11 to 20] [Reviews 21 to 30]
I
t’s been about ten years since I’ve seen Seven Samurai (I think we watched it together at my house on Alpha), and it still remains as one of my favorite films. I’ve wanted to see The Magnificent Seven ever since because I wanted to see how well the story of Seven Samurai converted to the western genre. I was surprised at how close the filmmakers stayed to the original story, including giving some of the individual gunmen "mirror" characters of the samurai. Of course, Yul Brynner’s character mirrored the leader, but I also distinctly recall characters in SS that were similar to McQueen (the right-hand man), Coburn (expert knifeman), and Buchholz’s (the young hotshot that falls in love with a village girl). The one thing that happened in Mag 7 that seemed to add a genuine sense of fear was that the villains were brought to life through Eli Wallach. In SS the villains rode around on horses terrorizing the villagers, but they never had any dialogue. All in all, I was pleased with the conversion because of the respect the filmmakers paid to the original story. Another recent film that comes to mind that "borrows" the SS storyline is A Bug’s Life.
I
couldn’t help thinking about the comparison of Mag 7 and The Outsiders regarding the launching of careers. Yul Brynner and Matt Dillon were the only established stars in their films (Yul with an Oscar and Matt with a big box-office draw), but for the rest of them, it was their biggest roles to date. Could Coburn and Vaughn be compared to Estevez and Lowe? Bronson to Swayze? McQueen to Cruise? and the four that dropped into obscurity: Buchholz and Dexter to Macchio and Howell?
M
ost of my "western" experience has been with Eastwood and/or Leone. However, I have seen High Noon, Red River, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, and Rio Bravo recently, and it has been very interesting to see very different styles, and it doesn’t seem that the year the film was made makes a difference in the style. For instance, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was released in 1962, but it was black and white and had a style that looked like it could have been released around the same time as Red River, 1948. Rio Bravo was released in ’59, one year before Mag 7, but Mag 7 looked so much more realistic (the interiors of RB looked like sets, whereas everything about Mag 7 looked authentic). Leone’s "spaghetti westerns" of the mid-60s were given a lot of praise for changing the "look" of the western, but I found Mag 7, which was released in ’60, to look more similar to the "spaghetti westerns" than the other four I’ve mentioned, including HN. I’m not criticizing any of these films for their different looks. In fact, as I mentioned, I find it very interesting in a way that gives diversity to the genre.
I
love Yul Brynner. I’ve only seen him in two other films (The Ten Commandments and Westworld), and he has such an authoritative presence. His voice is as commanding as James Earl Jones, and his walk and stance, while in the black cowboy gear (in both Mag 7 and Westworld), are very ominous. Despite the fact that Mag 7 is based on such a great story, Yul Brynner makes the film. The "making of" documentary on the special features mentions how McQueen was jealous of the screen presence of Brynner. Whenever the two were on screen together, McQueen tried to divert attention from Brynner by constantly fiddling with his own hat.
Critique: Although it’s been praised as a very popular film, "spawning two sequels and a popular TV series" (according to the back of the box), it doesn’t seem to get the same recognition as many other westerns, I think, because it is a remake of an already critically acclaimed film.
It’s such a great story of gunslingers with morals, Brynner is terrific, the sets looked authentic, the music of Elmer Bernstein is memorable (like his score from The Great Escape), and the supporting cast all looked like cowboys (even the German kid, Buchholz, playing a Latino). I really enjoyed this film. Four stars **** out of five.
"I think I’d much rather go with the black hat and black outfit there on the floor, if you don’t mind."
[Homepage] [Reviews 1 to 10] [Reviews 11 to 20] [Reviews 21 to 30]