The Magnificent Seven(1960) Directed by John Sturges. Everyone knows the first notes of Elmer Bernst
The Magnificent Seven(1960) Directed by John Sturges. Everyone knows the first notes of Elmer Bernstein’s rousing score. In addition, who doesn’t like a picture by John Sturges, that manly maker of man-sized action movies? And this one’s more than man-sized, filling big screens with Charles Lang’s stunning Panavision cinematography. Granted, there’s a generation of folks today who simply will not watch a western, but think of this picture as a fable and it takes on a different texture altogether (it’s based on Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, after all). This is also an opportunity to see some major actors such as Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Charles Bronson before they became mega-stars. A shiny-bald Yul Brynner is the man in black, leader of six gunslingers who rescue a poor Mexican village from a vicious band of, well, bandoleros. Eli Wallach is the head bandito, and he pretty much makes this his picture at times, if only because of his wicked sense of humor.Nonetheless, other players have their moments, specifically Coburn, who can pull a knife from behind his neck and throw it before anyone else can draw a Colt revolver. As for those neat little tricks with a shotgun by which Steve McQueen frequently shows off—he was doing them to upstage Brynner. Robert Vaughn (soon to be Napoleon Solo in “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”) is the best dressed among the seven (excluding Brynner), with tailored city-slicker duds and accoutrement. Bronson, not surprisingly, is a brooding badass with a heart of gold. Yes, this is a guy film. -- source link
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