Rent The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Still Magnificent - The Magnificent Seven review by GI

It's surprising that this classic western was a box office failure in the US on first release and only its success in Europe gained it the reputation it still has to this day. Based on Seven Samurai (1954) this is an unpretentious pure genre 'professional' western with a great cast, a very famous rousing soundtrack and a full on action story. A poor Mexican village is plagued by a gang of bandits led by Calvera (Eli Wallach - fantastic with his gold tooth, wry and menacing) who regularly arrive and steal their precious food stocks. Desperate the village hires seven down-on-their-luck gunfighters led by Chris (Yul Brynner - a strange piece of casting but one that he exploited for years afterwards - see Westworld (1973) as an example, and including Steve McQueen in a role that pushed him into stardom, Charles Bronson, James Coburn and Robert Vaughn). As the fight against the bandits hots up the villagers have second thoughts and betrayal follows. The 60s and the 70s were the decades of the 'professional' western, stories of gunfighters whose skills and desperate nature drive the narrative. This is not a story about 'the West', or conquering the frontier, nor about Indians or the Civil war; this is a simple tale of mercenaries who lead a sort of non-existence, a life of violence and with no future nor hope and it set a standard for westerns for the future. It's a classic piece of American cinema and it holds up brilliantly today (unfortunately the 2016 remake was a poor film).