The Magnificent Seven (1960)

I've really grown to like westerns over this past year, and there's still a few I want to see. Whether or not they'll all be during this year, I'm not sure, but I'm sure I'll check them out at some point. I really feel like my eyes have been opened to this particular genre, and I hope we get more of them in the future. Tonight I decided to watch The Magnificent Seven which is a straight up remake of Seven Samurai, only retooled slightly to fit a wild west setting. A lot of people complain about English remakes these days, but it's not a new practice. Was it worth watching this western re-imagining of a classic Japanese film? Hit the jump to find out!


In this version of the story, a small Mexican village is being attacked by bandits multiple times a year, always stealing their food, water, and supplies for themselves, leaving only the bare essentials for the village to scrape by. The villagers have finally had enough, and head into America to buy guns. They see Chris Adams (Yul Brynner) and Vin Tanner (Steve McQueen) perform an act of justice and bravery by fighting against a group of racist men who refuse to let the body of a Native American be buried in the cemetery. The villagers approach Chris and ask his help in buying guns, but he instead advices them to hire trained men, and pledges to help them put the group together, and protect their village.

Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen being offered a drink for their bravery

The story was pretty much the same as the original Japanese film, however because it didn't run nearly as long as the original, a few bits of the plot have been removed, and a lot of the events of the original have been either condensed down, or simply sped up. For example, large battles in a western aren't going to last long when you have 7 highly trained expert gunmen firing into a crowd of 40 bandits. This means a lot of the strategy to the battles seen in Seven Samurai simply isn't possible, not only due to the advancement of the weapons between the eras, but also because of the terrain; Mexico is far different than the hills of Japan. There were a number of small changes in other areas too, bringing in issues of race, the fact that the times were rapidly changing in the area due to do the development of America, and even some of the characters have been altered to fit the cowboy mindset as well.

A unique duel. The throwing knife vs. the gun!

I'd like to bring up that changed characters bit for a moment. While I was watching The Magnificent Seven I was trying to figure out which cowboys represented which samurai from the original film. In the original, there was a youngster who had much to learn, and also a boastful wild drunk. In this, I finally realized that those 2 characters were merged into one man, so who was the seventh man, if they just reduced 2 into 1? Then I realized that there is a type of character that Seven Samurai never dealt with, and that is the man who was once great, but whose nerves have finally gotten to him. Basically, he's a quick draw expert who now has so many people wanting revenge on him, he's become a paranoid coward, and has lost his edge because of it.

As for actors, almost all the acting was great, but there were a few extras who were just too over the top, or the Mexican characters who seemed to have been dubbed over. But still, there were plenty of famous actors and it was pretty cool to be able to recognize faces that a year ago I never would have known who they were. Besides Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner, I recognized Charles Bronson who I just saw in Once Upon a Time in the West, and also Eli Wallach, who many will know was "The Ugly" from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The movie doesn't get to focus too much on the 7 good guys, it just doesn't have the time, so instead we get to know a few of the main ones a little bit, and the rest is action.

I don't like the bandit's odds

While most people these days will rant and rave about how a movie shouldn't be remade into English (even I've been guilty of that), this film proves that if you can alter it enough to make it stand apart from the original, it's worth doing. The original story is molded and modified to fit the western themes and settings so well, I would almost say it was better, except we just never get to know know all of the heroes like I felt I did in Seven Samurai. However, Seven Samurai, if I recall correctly, did drag on a big sometimes because it was just so long. This film gets to the point, has almost all the same story beats, but then even puts a spin on the ending that I didn't predict would happen. Well, that is if you've seen the original and are expecting certain things to happen. Probably if you only saw this film, it wouldn't stand out like it did to me. Anyways, if you like westerns, check this one out. If you saw and liked Seven Samurai, I think it's worth seeing this movie too, to see how it's been expertly transformed for a western audience.

I just wonder if the remaking of Akira into a live-action English film will be as successfully done as this one was. Only time will tell.