5/5 Excellent
  by Lawrence
Played my Magnificent Seven DVD on my Blue ray Disc player although it's not HD, the picture & sound were great. Recieved the DVD within three days.

2/5 Extreme suspension of disbelief required
  by Brother Russell the First (Collapsed States of America)
I know this is considered a classic. The theme music is sublime, and it features some great Hollywood actors in their prime. And I am not comparing the film to Kurosawa's, because I think that is an unfair comparison (apples and oranges, so to speak). But after watching this again as middle-aged adult, I found it impossible to suspend my disbelief in the face of one silly situation after another.

First of all, a shaven-headed man as pale as Chris Adams (Yul Brynner), living and riding along the Texas/Mexico border? The back of his neck isn't even pink, much less red! He could have single-handedly terrified the evil bandito Calvera and his men into surrendering without firing a shot. They would have thought he was a spectral emissary from some unknown world and fled in panic at the site of him. But wait, there's more. This ghostly chrome-dome has a Russian accent, but one of his buddies refers to him as a Cajun. Huh?

Even more confusing is the presence of a young white guy with a strong German accent, named... wait for it... "Chico" (Horst Buchholz). Early in the film, Chico demonstrates his lack of skill with a pistol and his inability to hold his liquor, yet Chris Adams later lets him join the Seven, apparently because Chico is good at catching and cooking fish. (Presumably Chris isn't concerned about facing a hail of Mexican bullets with an inept greenhorn at his side, as long as he can die with a bellyful of tasty trout caught fresh from the river).

The film gets progressively weaker as the peaceful Mexican villagers
are given more and more lines, as the adult actors are even worse than the child actors. The accents are inconsistent, and these supposedly south-of-the-border thespians look as if they have never plowed a single furrow or picked up anything heavier than a taco.(However back in the day it may have been much harder to find the excellent caliber of Mexican-American actors that we take for granted today).

The ultimate insult to the viewer's intelligence comes when Calvera (Eli Wallach with some bronzer on his face) runs the Seven out of the village, but then kindly gives them all their weapons back once they are a couple miles outside of town. Suddenly Calvera seems far from the ruthless villain we need him to be, in order for the proper amount of bloodlust to be generated for the final battle to have the neccesary cathartic quality.

Another disappointing feature is the annoyingly frequent appearance of the simpering Horst Buchholz, as compared to the unfortunate underuse of the considerable talents of James Coburn. (Coburn's lines can be counted on one hand, with fingers left over). Some of Buchholz's scenes (clowning around with a complacent bull, mooning at an inexplicably smitten senorita) have a painfully Disneyesque quality that erodes the fine edge that McQueen and Brynner bring to the film.

It just seems like the authentic locations and the several fine actors here could have been put to much better use. Be prepared to enjoy this one merely for the Hollywood nostalgia and overall Wild West atmosphere, but don't try to take it as a serious film or you will be very disappointed.










2/5 Seven Samurai, this film is not...
  by A. Gyurisin (Wet, Wild, Wonderful Virginia)
It is a hard order to fill if you want to reinvision Akira Kurosawa set within an American western using a hodgepodge of ethnic actors. Not only are you attempting to recreate the same symbolic references and deep moral elements of an already established cult classic, but there are so many other outside elements that may be harder to control than simply samurai's saving a small village. None the less, director John Sturges tried, and the final result was the abysmal "The Magnificent Seven". Not to plot my course to early, but being a large fan of Kurosawa's masterpiece, I had to put that aside and see this film for what it was - what Sturges envisioned - instead of just making comparison after comparison. With sloppy characters, lacking detail, American-ized natives, and a grossly unoriginal villain - this 1960 classic is only memorable for a couple of key performances and an energetic score. Outside of that, Sturges uttered blasphemy on Kurosawa's work.

Again, I said I wouldn't compare the two works - so every attempt will be made not to. There were high hopes for "The Magnificent Seven", a family favorite film that has somehow slipped through my viewing time, but the moment this film began my attention began to fade. With a weak opening, and a lackluster retrieval of heroes to protect the village, "The Magnificent Seven" came out of the gates with a mere gallop, and eventually didn't even finish the race. As mentioned, our villain has these long monologues of corruption and greed, but when it comes down to it, Calvera didn't have the true evil gene. He was corrupt, but it was only skin deep. Outside of the typical ransacking of small villages, his character demonstrated no true evil - albeit with a PG rating, what could he do - but I don't believe Calvera could strike fear in any child today. Eli Wallach is to blame for this. Yet, he wasn't the only one dragging his feet. This film was bombarded by lackluster acting. Yul Brynner, the obvious lead, seemed to sputter his lines without a moment of emotion or spirit. His pathetic portrayal of Chris Adams, the main cowboy hired to protect, fell flat and was boring to the average viewer. That same description could also be used for most of those that he recruited (what is the saying, flies attract flies?), sans Steve McQueen. As a fan of McQueen's work, I was impressed by the way he picked up the lacking flag of the others. While he didn't provide much to each scene, he was interesting to watch, obviously caring more about the overall performance than Brynner did. Unlike Kurosawa's epic, this didn't focus as much on the men of the mission, just that they could be there to attack whoever descended onto the village. There was no individual character development, and when there was (see: Robert Vaughn's nightmare) it was rushed and ill-focused. Whereas in "Samurai" we felt something for each of the heroes, in this - nobody seemed to have the courage to stand forward and introduce themselves to us.

I must admit - this film was boring. From the introduction, to the recruiting, all the way to the repeat battle - "The Magnificent Seven" provided little-to-no entertainment. With no character to stand behind, it was left up to the action to drive the focus, but alas, this seemed to fall short as well. I can agree that there were some decent moments that spoke for the western genre, but nothing challenging. Evil riders would ride in, gunshots would smoke, people would fall, and finally there would be celebration. Thinking about it now, it felt as if Sturges was providing us a cheapened Cliff-Notes version of the original tale. With a running time of a mere 128 minutes, there is no way you could capture the intensity and drama behind Kurosawa's original 203 minute epic. Again, not to compare side by side - but what made the original work was the characters, the story, the intensity that Kurosawa was able to push through your television set. "The Magnificent Seven" felt like a rushed Hollywood project that had big stars, but no heart.

Overall, I really wanted to like this film. The cast itself sells this movie, but as a viewer of cinema, it just seemed like a poorly constructed feature. Hollywood was attempting to make a dime on Kurosawa's original idea, and it failed. I cannot watch this movie again, nor would I. The acting is atrocious, the story is choppy, and there was no real threat. The idea that these villagers could survive year after year of this attack forced me to believe that perhaps Calvera wasn't robbing them blind. We weren't given enough history of the violence prior to the introduction of our heroes. This just felt rushed from the beginning, but remained dull after seeing the sheer brilliance of "Seven Samurai". Watch this, if you must, for the music and McQueen, everything else is pure rubbish.

Grade: * ½ out of *****


1/5 Crucifying Celluloid Cows
  by neotroglodyte (desert southwest)
One generous star, and that's for Elmer Bernstein's lasting score.
This and three sequels? Hollywood's creative genius is fathomless.

Watch the original (Kurosawa's Seven Samurai), forget this misadventure. If Hollywood insisted on copying it with this ungulated-whore, they should have deleted some of Samurai's flaws,to wit: The whole romantic interlude is un-necessary. The Bucholz clown is just plain distracting to the dramatic momentum in many, many scenes (at least in Samurai, Mifune is killed). The surrender (not in Samurai); visiting the enemy's camp; risking their lives for a bunch of scheming diggers, etc.....absurd.

Kurosawa's final battle scene, which lasts forty minutes, is one of the greatest put on film...it will leave you exhausted.

Embarrassing: Yul struts around in spotless black like Ramses/Rama I of Siam...What the hell is he doing in Mexico helping lowly peons?

Magnificent? Magnificent parody.
Why seven...The number of holes in the human head?...ah! how appropriate.
The zebras triumph over the lions...
Empedocles and Chas Darwin are twitching.


4/5 Classic Western
  by D. Sun (Vallejo, CA United States)
Based off the Japanese 7 Samurai story. This movie has a great blend of characters with good acting and a great soundtrack. Classic western and among the favorites of many people who enjoy the genre.