Amazon.com Essentials:
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
