The Magnificent Seven 1960

Reviews (15)

1. M

   matt lynch 8 月 22, 2026

   Sort of the digital to Kurosawa’s analog, a high bit-rate but sampled nonetheless.

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2. P

   Patrick Willems 8 月 22, 2026

   Yul Brynner one of the top 5 coolest looking people who ever lived

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3. M

   Mr. DuLac 8 月 22, 2026

   We deal in lead, friend. -Vin I think most people can’t log The Magnificent Seven without mentioning Akira Kurosawa and Seven Samurai because they know if they don’t, someone from the Letterboxd Cinephile Police will mention in the comments how it pales in comparison to Samurai, which is a masterpiece, and how the western apparently owes everything to Kurosawa. What most self-proclaimed cinephiles fail to mention is that one of Kurosawa’s biggest influences is John Ford and Hollywood westerns. It’s not because their ignorant of the fact or dispute it, it’s something that was said by Kurosawa himself. It’s because since they don’t view Ford as an auteur like Kurosawa, they really don’t want to mention him. They only want…

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4. C

   Channing Pomeroy 8 月 22, 2026

   Qualitative comparisons to The Seven Samurai are fruitless. Apples & Oranges. However, here are seven magnificent things about The Magnificent Seven: (1) Steve McQueen riding shotgun on a hearse. (2) Idiots who mistake James Coburn’s apathy for cowardice. (3) Yul Brynner’s regal gate. Did he walk like that around the house? (4) Eli Wallach’s menacing practicability and red ruffled tux shirt. (5) The lonesome arithmetic of the hired gun, and the burden of a gun being less than the responsibility of a father. (6) The setting of the peasant’s village in a gorgeous crook in sawtooth mountains, a valley worth fighting for. Elmer Bernstein’s rip roaring theme. (7) Glorious widescreen color.

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5. M

   MrPPeeps 8 月 22, 2026

   A perfectly fine classic western. But I have to say, I’m a little disappointed in this, especially when compared with other westerns of the same era that I enjoy. As you’d expect it relies heavily on the final gunfight, which is very good for the time in its defence, and the iconic score. But other than that, i honestly struggled a bit with this. The characters are pretty damn bland, the romance straight sucks and there’s just too many large portions where nothing is actually happening. At least nothing interesting anyway. I still think it’s a decent film, because I didn’t exactly hate my time with it. I just can’t see myself ever choosing to watch this over the likes of ‘Butch Cassidy’ or the ‘Dollars trilogy’ for example. #17 Entry in the | 52 Week Challenge 2025 | My Last Review: | The Critic |

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6. W

   Will Menaker 8 月 22, 2026

   “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. And this responsibility is like a big rock that weighs a ton. It bends and it twists them until finally it buries them under the ground. And there’s nobody says they have to do this. They do it because they love you, and because they want to. I have never had this kind of courage. Running a farm, working like a mule every day with no guarantee anything will ever come of it. This is bravery. That’s why I never even started anything like that… that’s why I never will.” Cried during this scene. The only reason I’m not giving this 5 stars is because Horst Buchholz kind of annoyed me.

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7. A

   Andy Summers 🤠 8 月 22, 2026

   Westerns don’t come much better than this. John Sturges’ US remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is as exciting as it is legendary. A staple of Christmas television in the UK for many years I grew up looking forward to it’s Yuletide appearance on the schedules. The movie? Seven gunfighters take on sixty Mexican bandits for a meagre fee from some poor farmers. That’s it in a nutshell. But it’s brilliant. Throw in one of the most unforgettable scores of the 1960’s from Elmer Bernstein and you have the stuff of legend. And that’s what this film has in abundance,myths and legends. Steve McQueen is my hero. There we go it’s out there. I don’t care about the rumours of…

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8. 📀

   📀 Cammmalot 📀 8 月 22, 2026

   We come cheaper by the bunch A group of fighters come together to defend a village against a gang of evil bandits Some stories are so great they’re told over and over again in various forms throughout the years. Seven Samurai, Battle Beyond the Stars, The Three Amigos and nearly every episode of The A-Team. This magnificent version is all about the cast. Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen lead the gang with the coolest of cool and both Charles Bronson and James Coburn demonstrate why they’re destined for stardom. Can you imagine what it must have been like to sit in a theatre in 1960 and hear that Bernstein score for the very first time? I mean what are the odds that your head would explode? ”I admire your notion of fair odds, mister.” Cinematic Time Capsule – 1960 Ranked Cinematic Playlist – Steve McQueen

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9. R

   Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine 8 月 22, 2026

   RESEÑA EN ESPAÑOL AQUI FIGHT! – THE TWO STURGES So I could have sworn I had seen this film before and that it was directed by Sam Peckinpah, but I just realized I was actually thinking of The Wild Bunch. Which explains why I hadn’t rated this film before, as this was my first time watching the original after really liking its remake. And this is what Never So Few should have been, but set during wartime. The whole concept behind this film is excellent. It helps that it uses one of the most iconic action films ever made as its template, translating Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai into something distinctly American — and what’s more American than a Western? Instead of…

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10. C

    comrade_yui 8 月 22, 2026

    quotidian life made only possible when built atop the corpses of the heroic, the daring, the tired, the suicidal, the conflicted, the hopeless, the yearning. picking up a gun so that someone else doesn’t have to — no one ever asked you to be selfless, no one demanded that you do the right thing, no one will remember your intentions or your dreams. a boot-hill burial with your bullets, a drifting wind that hits a wall, seven men caught in transition, victims of history and progress and their own insistence on living by the way of the gun — “the days of good hunting are over” — john sturges arranges them on horseback in the same procession as their gravestones,…

    128 2
11. S

    ScreeningNotes 8 月 22, 2026

    “I have been offered a lot for my work, but never everything.” It’s hard to imagine how much the western genre owes to Akira Kurosawa, from The Magnificent Seven and A Fistful of Dollars being direct remakes of his films to the thematic similarities between the ronin and the gunslinger, but this fact stands in starkest relief in the case of The Magnificent Seven, because if it weren’t an adaptation of Seven Samurai it would be unimaginable. That’s not to say that Magnificent Seven is any worse for its debt to Seven Samurai’s existence, but instead that the idea to try to create seven distinct characters in a single story seems foolhardy enough that without Kurosawa’s previous success doing so,…

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12. M

    madison 8 月 22, 2026

    this shit is just a gathering of pretty people. and then they shoot each other with guns. steve mcqueen has the face of an angel

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13. F

    Filipe Manuel Neto 1 月 11, 2023

    **A classic western in its own right.**

    When I decided to see this film, I did so because of its enormous popularity in European lands, and not because of its particularly good reputation. For example, I knew that my father had seen this film in a theater in Luanda, Angola, in the years when it was released in theaters (back when Angola was not an independent country). Only later, when I read a little about it, did I discover that the film is a remake, an adaptation for a western of the famous film “Seven Samurai”, directed by Akira Kurosawa, which I saw before and which I thought was a bit overrated. And of course, it’s one of those pure classic US westerns, not a western-spaghetti.

    The script maintains the structure of Kurosawa’s film, adapted to Northern Mexico: a village of peaceful peasants, often pillaged by a band of malefactors, who hire a small group of seven honorable gunmen to help them defend themselves. However, this film corrects several of the “errors” that I pointed out to the original Japanese film: first, it is much shorter and summarizes the facts more to the essentials, giving us a less dull and dense narrative, more efficient to entertain us. To do so, the plot focuses on finding the best men for the job and, then, on the adventures to defend the village. It remains, however, a predictable film: we know that, in the end, the heroes will save the day, albeit with a few brave deaths in the final body count.

    This is certainly the greatest film of Yul Brynner’s career. He was already a renowned actor and had a strong influence on the casting, ending up putting together a kind of “dream team” of incredible action actors. And he himself made an impactful and remarkable performance. Steve McQueen also deserves mention, along with James Coburn, both of whom will meet again in “Great Escape”, shortly afterward. Charles Bronson and Horst Buchholz also do a very good job and make good use of the opportunity to develop their careers. In a more discreet register, Robert Vaughn and Brad Dexter help compose the seven heroes. Eli Wallach, in the role of the villain, cannot be forgotten for the quality of the work he offers us, and for the charisma that come with him.

    Technically, the film does not present great values to consider. Much of what we see was standard US cinema in the 1960s: the cinematography is good, quite colorful and well lit, but not particularly notable, and the sets and costumes are relatively good, from an aesthetic point of view. The recreation of the historical era fails a little: set around 1865-1870, the film does, however, have several props and clothing that are distinctly later by several decades. They look good, but they are not exact. However, this film makes up for it with good editing, a very pleasant rhythm, good special and sound effects and an excellent soundtrack, with a pleasantly epic and heroic nature, signed by Elmer Bernstein.

14. C

    CinemaSerf 12 月 28, 2022

    From the opening bars of Elmer Bernstein’s superb score you just know that this is going to be a good film… Add the ensemble of Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Yul Brynner and a superb Eli Wallach and it is a certainty. This version of Kurosawa’s 1954 story tells of a group of put-upon villagers who set out to recruit some hired guns to help them fend off a gang of murderous marauders. There is some fairly grand cinematography; strong performances from all including Robert Vaughn as the neurotic cowardly “Lee” and Horst Buchholz as newbie “Chico” that provides for a great, action-packed Western adventure movie with more than it’s fair share of twists and turns, some good tight dialogue/direction and Wallach is really entertaining, if not especially menacing, as “Calvera”. The local population put up some good performances too and although it lacks the intensity and grittiness of “Seven Samurai” I think it certainly holds it’s own as a classic piece of entertainment.

15. J

    John Chard 12 月 22, 2018

    I have been offered a lot for my work, but never everything

    A vile bandit constantly raids a small Mexican village and pilfers what he so wants. Finally having enough, and not wanting to relocate, the villagers set about recruiting some hired guns to finally rid themselves of the dastardly Calvera.

    As most people now know, The Magnificent Seven is of course a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s immense and hugely influential picture, Shichinin no samurai. Adhering closely to Kurosawa’s themes, director John Sturges has crafted a classic in its own right, one that has become something of a Bank Holiday staple for TV schedulers. When you break it down for scrutiny, the story is purely a very ordinary one, but as each archetype character and set up arrives, it becomes evident that it’s a story rich in texture, all framed marvellously in a Western setting.

    Sturges for sure knew how to direct ensemble casts, he would after all go on to direct the fantastic 1963, ultimate holiday movie, The Great Escape. Here he is excellently served by a faultless cast, though Yul Brynner was the only major name of note, the likes of Steve McQueen (owning the movie), Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn and James Coburn would go on to become part of cinematic macho culture, with each actor vying for the right to own the movie proving to be a bonus trump card for this rousing and much loved picture. Even the score has slipped nicely into popular culture, Elmer Bernstein’s music having now become recognisable to even the most youthful of movie fans ears.

    Unashamedly macho, but certainly delightful for the female viewers as well, The Magnificent Seven is an across the board delight for almost everyone who enjoys the escapism of film. Perhaps the last word should rest with Kurosawa himself, who after viewing John Sturges’ picture was moved to present him with a Samurai Sword in recognition of the great film he had crafted, enough said there I feel. 9/10