Let me just say right from the get-go that I am so glad I have NOT seen The Seven Samurai, so that I can watch The Magnificent Seven without being encumbered with comparisons, and enjoy this excellent Western on its own merits. I am sick to death of reading the reviews of those who almost invariably (and predictably) bring up that comparison!
The Magnificent Seven boasts a cast of stars seldom brought together in one movie, albeit most of them were not big stars when they appeared in it, with the exception of main star Yul Brynner; stage-trained Eli Wallach had previously made a splash (and won a BAFTA award) in Elia Kazan's Baby Doll 4 years previously. Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn and Robert Vaughn became stars in a good measure because of their involvement in M7. Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz, who was touted as some sort of new James Dean, round out the cast, though their careers seemed to fade into oblivion after their appearance.
Wallach plays bandit leader Calvera. Brynner, McQueen, Bronson, Coburn, Vaughn, Dexter and Buchholz make up the 7 gunmen who are hired to defend a small Mexican village from the ravages of Calvera and his 40 bandits, who ride into the village periodically to loot them of the food and goods the villagers have managed to accumulate through their hard work. Calvera sees the village and its goods as his inalienable right to take from at will, justifying his looting in a line he says to Brynner's Chris: "If God didn't want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep!" The 7 gunmen teach the village farmers to defend themselves, although many of the villagers are too afraid to fight against Calvera. They justify their position by reasoning that Calvera and his men only take from them what they need and leave enough for the village to live on until their next raid.
I have read some reviewers' comments here about how unrealistic it was for Calvera to give the 7 back their guns after he had subdued them and forced them to leave at one point in the movie, and indeed, why he let them go at all and didn't kill them outright. Apparently, these reviewers are unable to connect the dots that are revealed in the movie! Calvera told Chris that the authorities north of the border might retaliate against him if he killed the gunmen. Also, because the villagers had turned on the 7 at that point, which allowed the bandits to take the village back, that Calvera surmised the gunmen would not return; thus he felt no more threat from them after he let them go. He reasoned that the 7 would surely not return to defend a village that had turned against them, so why not give them back their guns? Makes perfect sense to me. At the point when they did return, Calvera was genuinely surprised, asking Chris why he came back to a place like that.
I am sure the famous main theme music will be recognized by anyone who was living during the 1960s and 1970s, even if they haven't seen the movie. Marlboro cigarettes appropriated the theme for their TV and radio commercials, assuring its immortality. This score by Elmer Bernstein is stirring and sweeping, just as an epic Western's music should be!
Some feel the character development in M7 was lacking, and I tend to agree, as I feel it's the only flaw in an otherwise great movie. But I suppose that is the hazard in featuring this many lead actors in the same movie. Also, the overly enthusiastic acting of Horst Buccholz in many of his scenes. Indeed, I feel he was given too much screen time compared to Coburn, Bronson, Vaughn and Dexter. But John Sturges, the director, thought Buccholz would be a hit with viewers as a new type of James Dean, which didn't materialize, in great part because of having turned down some choice roles in movies that would turn out to be huge hits (such as the role of Tony in West Side Story, and the role of The Man With No Name in Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western trilogy!). Though Coburn, Bronson and Vaughn had few lines and defining scenes, they made an impact on viewers nevertheless, becoming big stars in movies and TV (in Vaughn's case, he became the star of TV's The Man From U.N.C.L.E.), as did Steve McQueen. Eli Wallach continued his steady movie career well into his 90s, finally retiring in 2010 at the age of 94! But I believe Robert Vaughn is the only cast member who is still with us.
Though The Magnificent Seven is not the best Western ever made, it should be on the bucket list of any fan of the genre and of fans of the lead actors, many of them before they were stars. Watch it to listen to the sweeping Bernstein score. But watch it!
