WHAT: The Magnificent Seven (1960, DCP)
WHEN: November 17, 2021 1 PM & 7:30 PM
WHERE: Pickwick Theatre, Park Ridge, IL
HOW MUCH: $12/$10 advance or $10 for the 1 PM matinee
Advance Tickets: Click Here!
Calvera: New wall.
Chris: There are lots of new walls, all around.
Calvera: They won’t keep me out!
Chris: They were built to keep you in.
Director John Carpenter said of The Magnificent Seven, “It’s so easy to enjoy this movie. Is it the greatest Western of all time? No. Is it the most transforming Western? No. Is it the most fun? Yes.” On November 17, 2021, the Pickwick Theatre Classic Film Series will present this immensely popular and influential film in our Megatheatre. We were just days away from showing it in 2020, but then a pandemic struck. We look forward to seeing the return of the Mega-nificnet Seven on one of the largest theatre screens in the Chicago area. So load up your saddle-bags and prepare for an epic showdown in Park Ridge!
A Western remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954), The Magnificent Seven (1960) was the last great hurrah of the classic Hollywood-style Western. In the 1960s, filmmakers like Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah would reinvent the Western for modern audiences and bring a higher level of realism to the genre. But John Sturges’ film, by contrast, is of the old tradition of mythic heroes, following as it did in the wake of such defining Westerns as Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo (1959). Beyond its status as a cultural landmark, the film is notable for introducing several actors who would become hugely successful throughout the decade, most famously Steve McQueen. This would be his breakthrough film, but it would take a motorcycle jump over a fence three years later to make him a star. Additionally, film buffs cannot think of this film without humming composer Elmer Bernstein’s main title theme. With its cast, score– and script– The Magnificent Seven became a magnificent motion picture fondly remembered sixty years after its release.
When a small Mexican village is harassed by bandits, led by Calvera (Eli Wallach), a group of farmers crosses into the United States in the hope of buying guns to defend themselves. At a border town, they meet Chris (Yul Brynner), a Cajun gunslinger whose advice they seek. In due course, Chris decides to help the farmers personally and rounds up a band of hired guns, including a drifter, Vin (Steve McQueen), Bernardo (Charles Bronson), Britt (James Coburn), Lee (Robert Vaughn), Harry (Brad Dexter), and Chico (screen newcomer Horst Buchholz). Each of these men has their own reason for joining; either they’re going through hard times or suffering a personal crisis, or simply looking for a challenge. Arriving in the village, the gunmen train the farmers and prepare for Calvera’s eventual return.
Yul Brynner, as Chris, fires his SAA (Single Action Army) Artillery revolver.
The story goes that actor Anthony Quinn, who at the time was an independent filmmaker, wanted to remake the Japanese film. But it was associate producer Lou Morheim who first optioned the rights. Yul Brynner had more financial resources thanks to his recent deal with United Artists and purchased Morheim’s remake rights. He intended to make his directorial debut with this film and have Anthony Quinn star. The arrangement ultimately fell through when Brynner later approached independent producer Walter Mirisch (Bad Day at Black Rock). It was Mirisch who brought in director John Sturges (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral). With Sturges onboard, Anthony Quinn was written out. Quinn would later sue United Artists for breach of contract. (All of this intrigue is detailed in author Brian Hannon’s definitive chronicle of the film, The Making of The Magnificent Seven.)
When Brynner and Walter Mirisch first took over the project, blacklisted screenwriter Walter Bernstein had an early draft of the screenplay– supposedly more of a faithful adaptation of the Kurosawa film. In his version, however, the characters were Civil War veterans. It was John Sturges who suggested screenwriter Walter Newman to work on what became the version audiences saw on the screen. Newman fashioned an economical script that offered more than just shoot-’em-up action. The Magnificent Seven contained many important themes, such as the morality issue of being a gunfighter in society. Unfortunately, when Newman was unable to travel to Mexico for rewrites (brought about by the foreign censor) he later decided to pull his name from the film altogether. He didn’t want a co-writing credit with William Roberts, the script doctor who completed the screenplay.
John Sturges set about casting the film. Brynner would be the star and play the leader, Chris. Of his character, Brynner would later say that he was a dirty bum, but there were two clean things about him: his gun and his soul. Steve McQueen, after faking a car accident to get out of his TV contract (Wanted Dead or Alive), was cast as Vin. Sturges had worked with him previously on Never So Few (1959) and would work with him again on The Great Escape (1963). Horst Buchholz, a German actor, would play the Mexican, Chico. Broadway actor Eli Wallach was cast as Calvera, leader of the bandits. Robert Vaughn and Charles Coburn, two young actors who had gone to college together, were cast as Lee and Britt, respectively. Coburn’s role had originally been turned down by Sterling Hayden and John Ireland. Veteran supporting players Charles Bronson and Brad Dexter made up the rest of the septet. Fortunately for the producers, the film was cast before an actor’s strike shut down Hollywood.
Once they were ready to shoot, the production moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico, which recreated the border town set and the Mexican village. Mexican actors were, in fact, used in the cast. However, since the film was being made in Mexico, there was a greater sensitivity on the part of local authorities. Earlier American films like Vera Cruz (1954), which had starred Gary Cooper, did not go over well with audiences south of the border. As a result, there was a censor in place who ultimately forced changes to the script. The censor, for instance, questioned why locals would go looking for American gringos to save them. To avoid insult to national dignity and not put the peasants in a bad light, the main plot point was dramatically changed so that the Mexicans were looking to buy guns instead of directly seeking the men.
The first shot of the film, on March 1, 1960, depicted the seven crossing a creek on their way to the village. Almost immediately, director Sturges noticed that all the actors were trying to get attention on the screen. The most blatant instance was the rivalry between Brynner and McQueen. Each had their own tricks and bits of business to get the viewers’ attention focused on them. McQueen, a clever actor new to the moviemaking scene, tried to steal the picture away from Brynner, who was the established star. Finally, at one point, Brynner told McQueen that all he had to do was take off his hat and Steve wouldn’t be seen anymore. (The sight of Brynner’s bald head would draw all the attention.) When asked of the matter, Brynner released a statement: “I never feud with actors. I feud with studios.”
McQueen, who probably assumed he would be the “young gun” of the picture, wanted Horst Buchholz’s part. Even though Buchholz’s character, Chico, had more lines in the movie, it’s McQueen’s presence and charisma that were clearly dominant. This is best evident in the scene in which a drunken Chico bursts into a bar and tries to intimidate a stoic Chris. Buchholz’s dramatics are simply no match for the calm, cool, and collected McQueen, who is observing all this while standing at the bar. Despite these rivalries and competitiveness, it was a fun time for the actors. They were like little boys playing cowboys. Off the set, there was a likeability between them. When the cameras weren’t rolling, they were in their own groups playing poker, drinking, or sampling the Mexican food.
On its initial release the film was not well received, but it became a tremendous hit in Europe. As a result, it would come back to America and to better box office returns. Akira Kurosawa saw the film and loved it and presented Sturges with a sword. The film inspired three sequels– only the first of which, Return of the Seven (1966), would star Yul Brynner. A television series followed in the late 1990s, and then a theatrical remake in 2016 with Denzel Washington. But all these re-interpretations have fallen short in one way or the other.
There was only one modern variation that genuinely captured the spirit of the original, and that came in the form of the television series The A-Team (1983-1987). Thematically, the show was a descendant of the film with storylines that dealt with soldiers of fortune coming to the aid of the defenseless. The A-Team succeeded because of the chemistry of its cast, led by George Peppard (who had earlier starred in 1980’s Battle Beyond the Stars, itself a sci-fi reworking of The Magnificent Seven). One can easily draw a parallel between Peppard’s John “Hannibal” Smith in The A-Team and Brynner’s Chris who, at one point in the film after being disarmed by Calvera and forced to leave the village, immediately turns his men around and heads back despite being greatly outnumbered.
The Magnificent Seven‘s story has a relevance in our modern age. Though the Old West is long gone, our news headlines attest to the vulnerability of groups as persecuted as the farmers in the movie. We hear of migrant caravans under siege from local bandits. Instead of American gunslingers being sought, it’s the American military now protecting these groups. In place of Mexico, perhaps it’s Honduras, or some other Latin American nation. Interestingly, some writers have called The Magnificent Seven an allegory about American intervention in foreign countries.
Genres go in and out of fashion, and the popularity of Westerns is cyclical. Every once in awhile, one comes along and rekindles interest in the genre, a Silverado or an Unforgiven, for instance. But The Magnificent Seven is one of those rare breeds that spans the generations and keeps the fire of Western lore going. It has never lost its ability to entertain and captivate. Having revisited it again in anticipation of our event, I was struck by a few points. First, those who know of the film but who haven’t actually seen it assume it’s Steve McQueen’s movie, but it’s not. Brynner is clearly the star, and deservedly so. Despite their attempts to one-up each other, Brynner and McQueen made a great team. It’s unfortunate that audiences would never see them together again. Secondly, the script is full of memorable lines audiences remember six decades later. And finally, what more could be said of Elmer Bernstein, who composed arguably the greatest score for an American-made Western. It is one of the most iconic soundtracks in film history and was a key factor in the film’s overall success.
~MCH
