The Magnificent Seven

Western, Adventure, Drama

Yul Brynner	Chris Adams
Eli Wallach	Calvera
Steve McQueen	Vin
Charles Bronson	Bernardo O'Reilly
Robert Vaughn	Lee
Brad Dexter	Harry Luck
James Coburn	Britt
Jorge Martínez de Hoyos	Hilario
Vladimir Sokoloff	Old man
Rosenda Monteros	Petra
Horst Buchholz

Director	John Sturges
Producer	Walter Mirisch; Lou Morheim; John Sturges
Writer	Akira Kurosawa; Shinobu Hashimoto; William Roberts

Akira Kurosawa's rousing Seven Samurai was a natural for an American remake--after all, the codes and conventions of ancient Japan and the Wild West (at least the mythical movie West) are not so very far apart. Thus The Magnificent Seven effortlessly turns samurai into cowboys (the same trick worked more than once: Kurosawa's Yojimbo became Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars). The beleaguered denizens of a Mexican village, weary of attacks by banditos, hire seven gunslingers to repel the invaders once and for all. The gunmen are cool and capable, with most of the actors playing them just on the cusp of '60s stardom: Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn. The man who brings these warriors together is Yul Brynner, the baddest bald man in the West. There's nothing especially stylish about the approach of veteran director John Sturges (The Great Escape), but the storytelling is clear and strong, and the charisma of the young guns fairly flies off the screen. If that isn't enough to awaken the 12-year-old kid inside anyone, the unforgettable Elmer Bernstein music will do it: bum-bum-ba-bum, bum-ba-bum-ba-bum... Followed by three inferior sequels, Return of the Seven, Guns of the Magnificent Seven, and The Magnificent Seven Ride! --Robert Horton