#79: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

7.5 (The Magnificent 7.5)

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Nope

BEST SEQUENCE

The climactic shootout is really exciting, as is the scene when the seven first ambush the bad guys

BEST LINE

"Now, to business! I could kill you all. You agree?" [Silence] "Well, you don't disagree!" - Calvera, the bad guy, after he gains the upper hand

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

89%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"The Magnificent Seven transplants Seven Samurai into the Old West with a terrific cast of Hollywood stars -- and without losing any of the story's thematic richness."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"Seven gunfighters are hired by Mexican peasants to liberate their village from oppressive bandits."

THOUGHTS

• I'm not well versed in Westerns, but this one was pretty fun. A movie like this gets by on the appeal and charisma of its leads, and if all the leads weren't quite at the same level, the ones who brought it really brought it
• Horst Buccholz played Chico, a young hothead, and his performance was the only one I actively disliked. Too much overacting, and a little too cutesy at times
• Robert Vaughn and Brad Dexter were Lee and Harry Luck, respectively, and they were fine but I found it hard to distinguish between the two characters. I'd also never heard of or seen these actors before, so that's probably a big contributing factor to that
• Charles Bronson and James Coburn, as Bernardo and Britt, had some great moments. Coburn had the best introductory scene - he gets challenged to a duel, Coburn using a throwing knife and the other guy using a gun. I almost picked it for my favourite scene of the movie
• Yul Brynner played Chris, the leader of the seven, and he was such a good lead. Stoic and in control and cool as a cucumber
• And finally, Steve McQueen was Vin, Chris's right-hand man, and he was my favourite. All the best lines, and just as cool as Chris but with a bit more levity. Sounds like McQueen was kind of a dick during filming, though, always trying to draw focus and upstage the other actors. Also, what's with all the neckerchiefs?
• Brynner and McQueen also had a great introductory scene, giving us some good early-movie action and showing us the goodness of their characters in an efficient way
• I also liked Eli Wallach as Calvera, the villain. He may not go down as one of my favourite villains in cinema, but I liked that he was more practical than just evil (aside from the "robbing the villagers" part)
• Lots of overlap between this movie and one of my favourite movies ever, the war movie The Great Escape. I've mentioned it before, and I'll mention it again - it's movie #19 on the list. McQueen, Bronson and Coburn all starred in both movies, and both movies were directed by John Sturges
• It's always fun to see a "getting the gang together" sequence, which constitutes the first 40 minutes or so. And there were some really exciting gunfights towards the end. The middle part drags a bit, but whatcha gonna do
• And finally, what a score! Elmer Bernstein's music will be showing up again, including in the aforementioned Great Escape, and his music for The Magnificent Seven is iconic. You probably recognize it even if you don't realize you do. Give it a listen.
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Up Next: Supplementing the list with another movie I haven't seen, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, which The Magnificent Seven was based on