The Magnificent Seven poster & wallpaper

Brad Dexter, Charles Bronson, Eli Wallach

Akira Kurosawa's rousing Seven Samurai was a natural for an American remake--after all, the codes and conventions of ancient Japan and the Wild West (at least the mythical movie West) are not s...( read more  read more... )o very far apart. Thus The Magnificent Seven effortlessly turns samurai into cowboys (the same trick worked more than once: Kurosawa's Yojimbo became Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars). The beleaguered denizens of a Mexican village, weary of attacks by banditos, hire seven gunslingers to repel the invaders once and for all. The gunmen are cool and capable, with most of the actors playing them just on the cusp of '60s stardom: Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn. The man who brings these warriors together is Yul Brynner, the baddest bald man in the West. There's nothing especially stylish about the approach of veteran director John Sturges (The Great Escape), but the storytelling is clear and strong, and the charisma of the young guns fairly flies off the screen. If that isn't enough to awaken the 12-year-old kid inside anyone, the unforgettable Elmer Bernstein music will do it: bum-bum-ba-bum, bum-ba-bum-ba-bum.... Followed by three inferior sequels, Return of the Seven, Guns of the Magnificent Seven, and The Magnificent Seven Ride! --Robert Horton

Flixster Users

86% liked it

46,016 ratings

Critics

93% liked it

27 critics

Unrated, 2 hrs. 7 min.

Directed by: John Sturges

Release Date: January 1, 1960

Invite friends to see

DVD Release Date: May 8, 2001

Get It:

Stats: 2,162 reviews

Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites
report incorrect info

Photos

Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner The Magnificent Seven Chris Adams (Yul Brynner) The Magnificent Seven (1960) The Seven The Magnificent Two The Magnificent Seven Poster designed by Saul Bass the magnificent seven ? The Magnificent Seven The Magnificent Seven
Upload a Photo |

View All The Magnificent Seven Photos (12)

Your Rating


clear rating

Flixster Reviews (2,162)

  • ohagankieran
    January 25, 2009
    ohagankieran
    What else is there to say about Sturges' remake of The Seven Samurai? As soon as Elmer Bernstein's iconic score fills our ears we are back with old friends. Friends that after 48 years still never bore us or let us down.
    But really The Magnificent Seven is a collective memory sh...( read more)ared between Christmas, Easter, or rainy Sunday afternoons with grandfathers or dads. A film that fills in its own blanks when we join it half way through and a film that we feel compelled to watch even though we have already seen it hundreds of times before.
    Simply put, the Magnificent Seven is what is best about cinema.
  • bradwest
    October 13, 2008
    bradwest
    This works whether its samurai or gunslingers. Everybody just oozes cool in this.
  • Deano78
    September 2, 2008
    Deano78
    One of the best older westerns. Has an impressive cast as the best guns of the west come to the aid of a Mexican village.
  • jplong39
    July 6, 2008
    jplong39
    I can never watch it all the way through because I've seen Kurosawas original too many times. This is pale and shallow compared to Seven Samurai...
  • sononothing
    June 5, 2008
    sononothing
    Classic western remake of the Seven Samurai featuring Yul Brynner and a very young cast featuring Charles, Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, and Steve McQueen. This is the story of seven gunfighters hired by a Mexican village to protect and teach them to fight against a gang ...( read more)of bandits led by the superb Eli Wallach. Even though thetitle calls these men "magnificent" you soon learn that they are far from it. They are all flaws characters, some almost as flawed as Wallach. That's what makes this film so interesting.
  • spacecasefukface
    November 7, 2009
    spacecasefukface
    one of the best remakes of a kurosawa films... great cast
  • ringoestrella258
    October 29, 2009
    ringoestrella258
    One of my favourite American westerns with a brilliant cast. More enjoyable (and a lot shorter) than Seven Samurai upon which it is based. Great music by Elmer Bernstein.
  • Gazjp
    October 22, 2009
    Gazjp
    pretty good, i enjoyed it and i didnt think i would.
  • jonnycrumley
    October 1, 2009
    jonnycrumley
    I don't care much for Japanese Samurai movies. So don't preach to me about how this was based on one. All I know is this is one of the greatest westerns, with one of the greatest ensemble casts. Yul Byrnner is the coolest cowboy who ever walked the planet, and he's backed up by...( read more) western legends, Charles Bronson and James Coburn. I loved the chemistry between Byrnner and McQueen, and how director John Sturges lets each character develop throughout the movie. The direction is also complemented by the Elmer Bernstein's wonderful score, which added a great tension to the gunfights, which were also impressive.
  • donaldwhite1
    September 22, 2009
    donaldwhite1
    This is one of the important Western made and has one of the greatest theme songs in Western Movie history. It was based on the Japanese movie "The Seven Samurai". The Japanese movie was over 3 hours long. This movie is only 2 hours long, almost 80 minutes shorter than the Japane...( read more)se film. This became the prototype of the later Italian Westerns that were also based on Japanese Samurai movies. This movie is far superior to the Italian movies because this movie was actually filmed in Mexico while the Italians filmed their movies is Spain. In America following this film the Western took a down turn until the 1970's except for a few John Wayne movies. The Japanese researched their film and based it on a story of a Japanese village that hired a group of Samurai warriors to protect their village from bandits. It was set during the Japanese feudal era when the country was divided among several warlords who hired Samurai mercenaries to fight their wars. The Japanese story may have been based on an actual event. The American film was set in the 1870's along the Mexican-American border. The Samurai warriors were replaced by American gunfighters and the villagers became Mexican peons. But who were these bandits? From the time of the Mexican-American War in the 1840's until the end of the Mexican Revolution in the 1920's the border between the U.S and Mexico was a lawless place populated by Comancheros, Bandits, and Revolutionaries. The film makers made the bandits in the movie look like the rebel fighters of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920. The peons were Pima Indians that the Spanish had used as slaves on their plantations in northern Mexico. In the movie when the gunfighters arrive in the Mexican village they witness a festival were the villagers dress in their Native American costumes and preform their native dances. But these villagers weren't afraid to fight. The Japanese villagers lived in a culture with a ridged class system. Only the Samurai were allowed to carry weapons. The Pima had fought the Apache for centuries and had rebelled against the Spanish in the 1700's. When the film was made the Mexican government took offense at the idea that these Mexican peasants would have to hire American gunmen to protect themselves; therefore, the script was changed to have them go north to buy guns. In the 1860's France had invaded Mexico and the Mexican government fled to northern Mexico. When the American Civil War ended President Lincoln ordered Phil Sheridan to Texas with 50,000 troops and ordered him to supply arms to the Mexican Rebels and to prepare for an invasion of Mexico. By the 1870's the French were gone and a weak Mexican government had little control of northern Mexico. Were the bandits in the movie supposed to be the losers in the war against France or the following power struggles, or are they Comancheros who had been trading with the Comanche Indians? In the 1870's Mexico was transitioning between the democratic government that had expelled the French and a dictator that would rule Mexico until the Revolution of 1910 so it is conceivable that there would be bands of bandits preying on peons in northern Mexico. As for the gunfighters, New Mexico in the 1970's experienced the Lincoln County War where many notorious gunmen were hired by wealthy landowners battling for control of New Mexico. The original script had the gunfighters as Civil War veterans but this was dropped in later re-writes. If the movie had been set in the 1880's then it would have been believable that there would have been out of work gunmen in New Mexico but then there would have been no bandits in northern Mexico until 1910. By the 1880's the New Mexico gunmen had moved onto Tombstone, Arizona. The weapons used were Colt revolvers that came out in 1875 and Winchester rifles. The ones in the movie looked to be model 1898's which put them out of the time period of the movie. This was typical of Westerns made before the 1970's. I first saw this movie on TV. The version you usually see on TV today is grainy and old. You also don't get to see it in wide screen format. This movie was an early wide screen movie that was coming into vogue in the early 1960's. The DVD is much cleaner and you get to see the original wide screen format. The music in the movie is great except that it was later used to sell cigarettes. The best quote in the movie is, "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Also since this is an American movie all the characters speak English including the Mexicans but if you get the DVD you can watch it in English, French or Spanish with any subtitles you want.

View All The Magnificent Seven Reviews

Critic Reviews

No recent reviews.

View more The Magnificent Seven reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • Gx7
    November 25, 2008
    Gx7
    Im pretty sure I watched this when I was a weeeee ickle girl, the only thing is I cant remember anything abt this movie now lol! Highly doubt id watch it again tho.
  • spaghettimonster
    April 11, 2008
    spaghettimonster
    Hello, Douglas. I believe it's Horst Bucholst.
  • DouglasWCollins
    April 9, 2008
    DouglasWCollins
    Can somebody tell me who played the young gunslinger character in the movie. He is the only one besides Yul and Steve to live at the end. I looked on IMDB and could not figure it out. Just watched the movie again tonight (for the first time in 25 years) and it's bugging the heck out of me.
Post A Comment | View All Comments

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

All Rotten Tomatoes content is used under license from Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes, Certified Fresh, and the Tomatometer are the trademarks of Incfusion Corporation, d/b/a Rotten Tomatoes, a subsidiary of IGN Entertainment, Inc.

Official Trailer

View Larger The Magnificent Seven Trailer

Cast

More Like This

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

  • A Bug's Life
    A Bug's Life (36%)
  • The Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai)
    The Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai) (86%)
  • Hang 'em High
    Hang 'em High (79%)
  • High Noon
    High Noon (100%)

More Movies like The Magnificent Seven

Facts

No facts approved yet. Be the first

The Magnificent S... : Watch Free on TV

The Magnificent Seven Trivia

  • The Magnificent Seven is the remake of what japanese film? (english title)  Answer »
  • What western film is based off the Japanese film Seven Samurai?  Answer »
  • Match the movie to the quote: O'Reilly: "Don't you ever say that again about your fathers, because they are not cowards. You think I am brave because I carry a gun? Well, your fathers are much braver because they carry responsibility, for you, your brothers, your sisters and your mothers."   Answer »
  • Which movie was remade as The Magnificent Seven?  Answer »
More The Magnificent Seven Trivia

Movie Quizzes

Create a Quiz |

All Quizzes

Video Clips

Upload a Video |

All The Magnificent Seven Videos

Meet Other Fans

Add The Magnificent Seven to favorites

Recent News

No recent headlines. Got one?

Recent Lists

Make a List |

View All Lists

Most Popular Skin

debmm Skin by debmm
26 Profiles
Add to Profile

More Skins