The Magnificent Seven

Japanese legend Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (screened in June in our Kurosawa Centennial retrospective) is reworked as an American Western in director John Sturges’s The Magnificent Seven, the tale of a remote Mexican village, terrorized by bandits, that hires a gang of tough cowboys — including Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson — to defend it. Sturges’s sombre, philosophical adaptation shared much of the Japanese original’s story, onscreen and off — including both films’ extensive production challenges. Facing an impending actors’ strike, Sturges rushed to assemble his ensemble cast, cleared his out-of-country shoot with the Screen Actors’ Guild, and began filming in Mexico — only to face local government censorship over the film’s potentially offensive stereotypes of helpless Mexican peasantry. That conflict resolved and the film completed, Sturges’s next challenge came from the critics, who complained that he had failed to recreate the powerful artistic sensibilities of Kurosawa’s film. The Magnificent Seven has survived its mixed reception to become one of America cinema’s classic dusters, even spawning its own parody, 1986’s Three Amigos! Kurosawa, by the way, liked the film a lot. “A rip-roaring rootin’ tootin’ Western . . . There is a heap of fine acting and some crackling good direction” (Variety). Colour, 35mm. 128 mins.