I love this movie so much

One of my all time favorites.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Having to endure the continuous pillaging of their village by a gang of bandits led by a notorious outlaw named "Calvera" (Eli Wallach), three Mexican peasants go north to a town on the American side of the border to obtain some weapons to defend their village against him. However, upon talking to a gunman named "Chris Adams" (Yul Brynner) they are convinced to hire gunmen instead. Although they cannot afford to pay much Chris accepts the job and offers to recruit others as well. Soon he winds up with 6 good men and together they all toward the Mexican village and a confrontation with Calvera and his men. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film was a fine Westernized adaptation of "The Seven Samurai" produced back in 1954. Although all of the actors were highly competent, I especially liked the casting of Eli Wallach who used a good sense of humor to highlight a masterful performance. Be that as it may, I enjoyed this movie and have rated it accordingly. Above average.

Reviewed August 2010It did not pan out as how I expected it to be, rather was more entertaining. It follows a linear and typical western narrative about a bunch of peasants hiring a few guns to get rid of a bandit Calvera and his gang who thrive on the village for free supplies. The lead characters in Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and an ensemble of others are cast perfectly and each evokes a style that is subtle in presentation but looks very intentional in the viewers perspective. As it moves briskly on familiar ground for most of it's runtime, the twist in strategy by Calvera towards the end was very fresh and took me by surprise. It features very good action sequences for it's time and as an example I can think of one stunt where Chico pulls off a bandit from the horse and gets on the same horse during it's fall and rise. There was also effective use of dust to conclude most action scenes like falling off, a shot towards the camera or skidding to take cover etc. It's stylish, has an entertaining plot that features an interesting bad guy, though gets a bit melodramatic at times doesn't drag too long.

This movie surprised me, not only with it's quality, but also with the fact that this is a classic western which shows heroes who aren't THAT heroic. They are all cold-blood-killers, but they are also not just some cool looking hard anti-heroes who spill out one-liners and are perfect in everything they do... they are something, in between.The cast is incredible, never saw so many great actors from that era in one movie, and it was strange for me to see Yul Brynner as a "good guy", because i only knew him as a dysfunction killer-robot till now.The music is very catchy, and even people who don't know about the movie at all can hum it along.The cinematography is great, classic widescreen-western-glory the way it's supposed to be.And even the action is better than i expected.All in all, a very good, western.BUT i also saw the remake and have to at least say one thing: The character motivation in terms of the story (a village got overrun by a group of bandits and a citizen wants revenge because her husband was shot by the leader without mercy) is much more gripping as in this one...but that's just my opinion.This movie is great and a lot of fun, and it's worth watching for the incredible climax alone.

The Magnificent Seven is a 1960's western directed by John Sturges. It's a movie that I had heard of but knew little about before watching, and left me with mixed feelings. There are things that work, and the acting is (mostly) strong, but ultimately the film is dragged down by an agonisingly slow pace. This is 128 minute film which would probably work better if it were half that length. It takes the first 45 minutes before they have even recruited the seven (in a very Avengers Assemble-type-way), and then they go to protect a villain from plundering bandits. The issue is that the plot doesn't really develop from there. Director John Sturges focuses entirely on characterisation instead of genuine story development, so the end result is a film with great characters but a story that drags on and on, which passed its sell-by-date within the first hour. However the plus-side to this is that the film contains some genuinely good characters, who mostly manage to keep it entertaining, even when the pace drags it down. Yul Brynner as Chris Larabee Adams and the great Steve McQueen as Vin Tanner both offer great performances and characters - it is these two that keep the film afloat. The villain of the story, Calvera, played by Eli Wallach is somewhat average but at the same time the exact type of villain you would expect from this type of film, so in that way he serves his purpose. The casting is on- point and there are only a couple of weak performances, so on the whole there are few complaints there. Being a western about 1870's gunslingers and bandits, an audience would naturally assume that this would be a movie packed with action, but unfortunately this is no where near the case. There is virtually no trace of action within the first 70 minutes of the movie, and even after then, there are only two real shootouts, which, although they were well shot and entertaining in themselves, were far too infrequent. In a movie already dragged down by a very slow pace, a bit of action here and there would go a long way; but audiences are bound to be disappointed as they are instead forced to listen to endless monologues about not giving up and fighting to survive, yet ironically we barely see any of this. If you're looking for a movie that focuses mostly on characters instead of action or story, this will probably please you (although you'd be better off watching the 2015 Steve Jobs movie, which does a much better job of both characters and story), but if you're looking for an action-packed Western with a strong story, look away - you will not find that here. Still, the characters are certainly good, and the acting complements them, along with a great, Oscar-nominated soundtrack by Elmer Bernstein that all works together to make this a just-about-enjoyable movie that still, in 2016, has its strengths.