The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Definitely a classic but one that I’ve always been slightly mixed on. As an action film it’s great fun, with hordes of Eli Wallach’s bandits terrorizing a Mexican village while the team of seven hired guns fend them off. However, a lot of the characters feel a bit thin to me (obviously a consequence of having seven main characters). The leader of the bunch (played by Yul Brynner) has a decent role, and I think good use is made of Charles Bronson as an hired gun who has fallen on hard times and Robert Vaughn as a dandy running from his past. However most of the rest end up looking the part but not having a whole lot of depth. Horst Buchholz gets a bit more to do as the stereotypical overly-cocky young gunfighter, but does play very close to the stereotype.

In summary, it’s enjoyable to watch with excellent action scenes (including a memorable not-quite-action scene where Brynner and Steve McQueen escort a coffin past a bunch of racist townsfolk, establishing their characters) and one that I’ve come to enjoy more over the years. It does suffer from my general dislike of films with titles “The Something Some-Number” (largely because I think I enjoy a more detailed look at fewer characters).

I have a DVD that came in a collection with The Big Country and The Long Riders (which are both decent but seems a slightly odd combination. The picture’s pretty decent but the sound seems a little muffled in places – I suspect better versions are available now.