EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

kwhite-53010 Some may disagree with me but for my money this is the best western ever made. The dialogue, the music, the scenery and the outstanding cast and direction all come together in perfect alignment. It is a movie I have watched many many times since first seeing it at a very early age. Needless to say, I am a huge, huge Yul Brynner fan.

Wuchak Released in 1960 and directed by John Sturges, "The Magnificent Seven" is about a Mexican peasant village oppressed by a group of bandits, led by Calvera (Eli Wallach). The village leaders resort to hiring seven gunfighters from America to help defend their town. The seven gunmen are played by Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn and Brad Dexter.Despite the contrived plot, based on Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" (1954), you can't beat the lusty score, the superlative locations and the excellent main cast (the villagers, by contrast, are mostly weak). Unfortunately, the movie's ruined by hokey script flaws. For instance (***MILD SPOILERS ENSUE***), Chico (Buchholz) is able to effortlessly infiltrate Calvera's bandits, utterly fooling them, even though there were only 32 of them by this point (rolling my eyes). Even if Calvera & his brigands failed to make out Chico's face, which is a big IF, his dialogue & accent would've given him away. Keep in mind that he was just an unseasoned teen.Another prime example is the village leaders' sudden cowardly turnaround (i.e. betrayal), which totally contradicts their earlier resolve. Yes, I realize they learned that the bandits weren't run off and that they were going to return to the village out of desperation, but there were only like 30-32 bandits left at this juncture and the combined forces of the seven gunmen and the fighting villagers now had the opportunity to annihilate the thugs for good (***END SPOILERS***). The sad thing is that both of these script hitches could've easily been fixed, but this kind of lame writing reflects too many Westerns before the 60s when the modern Western came to the fore with "One-Eyed Jacks" (1961), "Hombre" (1967) and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969).The film runs 128 minutes and was shot in Mexico and Old Tucson, Arizona.GRADE: D+

Romilos Fronimides If you watched "Seven Samurai", you can't missed the almost identical story & heroes. "The Magnificent 7" is exactly that, not "based on", but exactly that: the American, Western version of that old Japanese "gem"!Recently, a very new version released (this year, 2016). Better battle scenes, more action, special effects, many actors (stand-men), etc., like all modern Hollywood films. But... lack of screenplay, of dialogues, of acting (Washington couldn't save by himself the film). This one... maybe old, without lot of fighting, with "good looking-dress up" actors (the old Hollywood didn't liked the "dirty" - real - cowboys), but... here, we have SCREENPLAY, ACTING!A very good film, worth to watch it any time, even so many decades ago. "Da...da-da-da...Da-da-da, da-da" (main music theme)!

CaptainCutie The Magnificent Seven is among some of the great classical western films, and i believe that it has well earned its title as a great classical western film. While Western movies aren't typically films that i love or watch frequently, i can truly say that after watching the film The Magnificent Seven that i enjoyed this film and liked how it was put together and played out. One thing that i enjoyed about this film in particular was the music that was playing, i thought that it was a very good choice and it complimented the film well. It seemed that throughout the duration of this film the background music seemed to fit the scenes very well and helped to get the audience into the film more. Another thing i enjoyed about this film was the stunning cast. They all had a great ability to portray their characters and the story line the film was trying to tell. I think that The Magnificent Seven was trying to give a great message in their film. The message that i believe the film was trying to get across is to care about your community and others in it. This message is very important and i believe that the film is trying to get this message across because of how the seven gunman help defend the small village while up against impossible odds. Overall i really enjoyed this film and thought it had a great message.