DVDs in Review

The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges, 1960)

Title: The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges, 1960)

Release date: August 30 2010

Certificate: PG

Format: Blu-ray

RRP: £19.99

Rating: 4/5

Reviewed by Dave Lancaster

‘The Magnificent Seven’ transcends the usual western plotline of having a group of gunslingers protect a weak town from pillaging bandits by actually getting to know the gunslingers, instead of stringing them along with a series of shoot-outs and half-baked love stories.

Here we have seven men to explore as they’re put to the test, completely outnumbered and defending a small Mexican farming community from the evil Calvera (a savage Eli Wallach) and his scores of loyal, vice-driven men. Master director John Sturges secured quite a cast for this loose remake of Kurosawa’s classic ‘Seven Sumarai’, with Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Robert Vaughan, Charles Bronson, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz making for a commanding screen partnership that paved the way for future action ensembles such as ‘The Dirty Dozen’.

Naturally the level-headed fighters integrate themselves with the town and its easy-going culture, some more than others, but all are bound by their contract which is held together with the promise of food and board. This is an honourable job not a financial boost, and when the true danger becomes apparent each character reacts differently.

Admittedly Coburn and Vaughan’s characters aren’t given anywhere near as much introspection as Brynner, Bronson and McQueen’s but you get to care for each member of the seven thanks to their chemistry and the fact that Wallach’s bad guy is hardly in the film; he is talked about frequently and feared throughout before showing up unexpectedly.

To see an action film with an emphasis on character development is one thing, but to see it spread across an ensemble with so much assured skill is quite another. Sturges (who also directed ‘Bad Day at Black Rock’ and ‘The Great Escape’) knows how to balance story and short bursts of action to a point whereby they become dependent on each other, rather than just serving as a break.

The new 50th anniversary Blu-ray transfer is flawless in some scenes and heavily grainy in others. Regardless, it’s the film that counts and while ‘The Magnificent Seven’ could do with another trip to the editing room, it remains a staple of American western cinema and rightly so.

An array of extras supplement the film, most notably a short documentary entitled ‘The Linen Book: Lost Images’ which concerns a book filled with production stills, promo shots and other gems found in the studio’s archives (which interestingly enough way underground is in a working salt mine) which principle cast and crew flick through while fondly reminiscing. A true treasure indeed.