Movies - The Magnificent Seven

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	Movies - The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven is a John Sturges western film of 1960, a remake of Shichinin no samurai, better known as The Seven Samurai
. A group of hired gunmen are tasked to protect a Mexican village from bandits.

Despite being modeled on the edited version of The Seven Samurai
, this American remake preserves the important scenes and themes of the original, with a few alterations.

Notable changes include:

In order to gain permission to film in Mexico, changes had to be made to make sure that Mexicans were portrayed favorably. In the original, the village patriarch tells his scouts specifically to hire samurai to defend the village. This was originally to have been carried over, but the Mexican government thought it made it appear that Mexicans were unable to defend themselves. Therefore, it was changed so that the patriarch tells the scouts to buy weapons. It is upon their first meeting with Chris that he tells them they will need hired guns. As in the original, the hired guns teach the villagers how to defend themselves as well.

A scene in which the villagers capture and then torture to death one of the bandits is omitted entirely.

In the original, most of the seven have never met before. Prior to meeting for their job, Kambei only knew Shichiroji. In this film, Chris Adams seems to know most of his comrades except for Vin and Chico.

Chris Adams's introduction is markedly different from Kambei's. In the original, Kambei makes his first impression on the farmers by pretending to be a monk in order to rescue a child taken captive by a bandit. In this film, he and Vin come to the farmers' attention by taking a dead Indian to be buried at a local cemetery, over the objections of some local townspeople. Though a very different introduction, each is suited to its respective culture.

Katsuhiro, the aspiring young samurai, and Kikuchiyo, the would-be samurai whose hatred for the farmers hides a painful past, are combined into the single character, Chico. Unlike Kikuchiyo, Chico is not killed at the climax of the film.

Chico is given Kikuchiyo's pivotal moment halfway through the film, in which he chastises the farmers for reacting to the samurai with fear, yet still expecting to receive their protection.

In the original, the samurai make a pre-emptive strike against the bandits campsite, losing one of their own in the process. Thus, when the bandits attack the village, the samurai are short one man, and three more are killed in the battles. In this version, that attack is omitted. All the gunmen are present for Calvera's first attack on the village. After their defeat, Calvera's men regroup and prepare to attack again. Chico overhears this and reports it to his fellow gunmen and the farmers. Some of the farmers fear that Calvera's retribution will be worse than his original raiding. The seven gunmen go to the enemy's campsite only to find it deserted. They return to the village to find that the villagers have surrendered. The seven are kicked out of town. They sneak back in and kill all the bandits. In the process, Bernardo, Britt, Harry and Lee are killed.

As in the original, only three of the original seven survive. In the original, as in this one, Chico/Katsushiro falls in love with a farmer's daughter, thus fulfilling her father's greatest fear and alienating her from him. In the original, once the fighting is over, the farmer's daughter refuses to return Katsushiro's affections. In this one, Chico stays behind to be with her.

Sequels

Return of the Seven 1966( also known as Return of the Magnificent Seven)

Guns of the Magnificent Seven 1969

Magnificent Seven Ride 1972

Trivia

The movie's famous theme tune was by Elmer Bernstein, later being reused in commercials for Marlboro (before the cigarette ad ban) and Victoria Bitter beer. The score was nominated for an Academy Award in 1961.

The shot of the seven gunfighters striding toward the camera is one of the most often-copied shots in cinematic history, appearing in such diverse films as The Right Stuff
and Monsters, Inc.
(which also starred James Coburn
), and the opening sequence of the animated Justice League.

The film's success inspired three sequels: Return of the Seven (1966); Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) and The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972), but none were as successful as the original film.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Magnificent Seven ]

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