The classic Western movieThe Magnificent Sevenspawned three sequels in its day, and was remade with Denzel Washington in 2016. The Washington version was indeed a remake of a remake, as the original was itself based onAkira Kurosawa’s masterpieceSeven Samurai.
The fiveMagnificent Sevenmovies together represent an exercise in making the most of a sturdy premise, tweaking things only minimally from movie to movie. The 2016 version follows the same plan as the 1960 version, detailing the assembly of a team of gunslingers, and tracing them through their ultimate mission. ThethreeMagnificent Sevensequelsreleased between 1966 and 1972 follow that plan as well, barely deviating from the course first set down by Kurosawa, then retraced in Western form by John Sturges.
The Magnificent Seven Ride!
Cast
The Magnificent Seven Ride!, released in 1972, is the final installment of the original series. It follows Marshal Chris Adams who, after a personal tragedy, recruits a writer and five prisoners to combat a gang of Mexican bandits, continuing the legacy of the legendary seven.
The final entry in the originalMagnificent Sevenseries seesLee Van Cleef take over the role of Chris Adams, becoming the third actor to play the character after Yul Brynner and George Kennedy. In a departure from the first three films, all shot internationally,The Magnificent Seven Ride!was made entirely in the United States. The decision to shoot stateside may have been a cost-cutting measure, but even so, the film was budgeted at a healthy $3 million. Director George McCowan took the series in a grittier, darker direction for this installment.
Van Cleef’s Chris is given more personal motivation in this one, assembling a new seven to help him avenge the rape and murder of his wife. The mash-up script adds to thisDeath Wishelement by also mixing in someDirty Dozen, as Chris recruits his men from prison. A darker, grittierMagnificent Sevenis not necessarily a betterMagnificent Seven, and the film was not a box office or critical success.
Return of the Seven
Return of the Seven, directed by Burt Kennedy, is a 1966 Western film that follows Chris, a leader of the original Magnificent Seven, as he reunites with fellow gunslinger Vin to rescue Chico and other men captured by bandits, with help from four new recruits.
The originalMagnificent Sevenwas surprisingly not a big box office hit in the United States. It did do well overseas, however, and in 1966 it got a long-awaited sequel.Yul Brynner was the only original cast member who could be talked into rejoining the seven(Chris Adams himself could not have persuaded Steve McQueen to return). The cast picked up some solid new additions, however, including the great Warren Oates.
Legendary B-movie writer/director Larry Cohen was responsible for scriptingReturn of the Seven, which just recreates the original movie’s plot, more-or-less. Director John Sturges is missed more than any of the departed cast members, as Burt Kennedy is not on his level. Bashed by critics upon release,Return of the Sevenhas failed to win any champions in the decades since, as indicated by its 13% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Domestic returns forReturn of the Sevenwere not impressive, as the film earned just $1.6 million in theatrical rentals. The overseas market saved the day again, though, with $3.5 million in rentals garnered from international releases. Modern-day franchises likeFast & Furiousare notably more successful overseas than at home, but that phenomenon is not new, as theMagnificent Sevenmovies prove.
56 years after the first ride ofThe Magnificent Seven, Antoine Fuqua assembled his own team of gunslingers for a remake. Heading up the new seven is Denzel Washington, playing a character not named Chris Adams, who is inspired by both Brynner’s Chris and real-life lawman Bass Reeves (who was later made famous by Taylor Sheridan). Chris Pratt is the movie’s Steve McQueen type, and Ethan Hawke is the requisite former soldier dealing with PTSD. In a first for theMagnificent Sevenfranchise,Haley Bennett plays a three-dimensional female character.
Tom Cruise was originally set to star inThe Magnificent Seven, before leaving the project
Fuqua’sMagnificent Sevenspared no expense in retelling its familiar story, its budget reportedly coming in at over $90 million. None of that money went to doing real explosions. Washington is an even more charismatic lead than Brynner, and given how perfunctory the character-building is for a lot of the supporting players, one gets the feeling he and Fuqua would’ve preferred to make a solo Western about Bass Reeves.
Sony saw a $162 million box office return on its $90 million+ investment. With a Rotten Tomatoes critics’ rating of 64%, the film was only mildly well-received by reviewers, with many feeling it was too much like a superhero film with a Western backdrop. TheMagnificent Sevenfilm franchise may have been sent to the stables forever,but a streaming reboot is reportedly being developed by Amazon Studios.
Guns of the Magnificent Seven
Guns of the Magnificent Seven is a 1969 Western film serving as the third remake of Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai. George Kennedy leads a group of seven gunslingers tasked with liberating Mexican political prisoners and training them to mount an attack on a fortress to rescue a revolutionary leader.
The secondMagnificent Sevensequel features a big recast at the top of the bill. Yul Brynner wanted out after playing Chris Adams in the first two films. Unwilling to abandon the main character of the whole series,the producers brought in George Kennedy, fresh off winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar forCool Hand Luke.
Kennedy holds down the role of Chris ably enough, but lacks Brynner’s magnetism. Joe Don Baker and Bernie Casey provide more juice as two of the new seven assembled by Kennedy.Gunsshoehorns in a timely racial message as Baker and Casey go from almost fighting to being best friends. The script gives each character time to make an impression, before sending them headlong into a final action sequence that rewards the audience’s patience with their money’s worth in real explosions, exciting gunplay and poetic self-sacrifice.
Critics were low onThe Guns of the Magnificent Sevenwhen it was released, dismissing it as another routine Western. But the film has picked up its devotees over the decades, including Quentin Tarantino, who discussed it earlier this year on an episode of his Video Archives podcast. Tarantino praisedGuns’ helmer Paul Wendkos, calling the journeyman one of his favorite Columbia B-movie directors. He revealed that he first saw the movie on NBC’sSaturday Night at the Moviesback in the 1970s, and “really liked it.”
Movies built around teams of highly-skilled people assembling for a mission are old-hat by now. The idea was not as well-worn in 1960, however. AfterThe Magnificent Sevenarrived in theaters, the “let’s assemble a team” concept took off in Hollywood. The John Sturges film’s DNA is in the Rat Pack movieOcean’s 11. It’s inThe Dirty DozenandThe Guns of Navarone. It’s inThe Wild Bunch.The Avengersis essentiallyThe Magnificent Sevenwith superheroes(the original comic is reputed to have been inspired by the movie).
The DNA passed on by Sturges’ movie was itselfinherited from Kurosawa’sSeven Samurai, the real template for the multi-character team-up movie. Accounts differ as to Kurosawa’s assessment of the remake. One story claims he loved it so much he gave Sturges a sword, but another says Kurosawa was “disappointed” by it.
The Magnificent Sevenwas not that big a domestic box office hit, making $2.25 million in theatrical rentals on a budget of $2 million. International audiences made the movie a hit, helping it add $7.5 million more in rentals, and a reported 89 million ticket sales. Yul Brynner’s international appeal was a big reason the film blew up overseas. It caught on particularly well in Germany, a country that continues to admireThe Magnificent Sevenso much, its Jupiter Awards gave Denzel Washington Best International Actor for his performance in the 2016 version.
One of the few American films released in the Soviet Union,The Magnificent Sevenwent on to become one of the now-defunct Communist nation’s all-time biggest box office hits.
The Magnificent Seven’s 89% RT fresh rating is indicative of its enduring popularity and pop culture relevance. It wasn’t hugely acclaimed in its day though, as many critics took issue with its third act. Its music is perhaps even more famous than the movie itself, thanks to Elmer Bernstein’s rousing-yet-hummable theme.
