The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Directed by John Sturges
An oppressed Mexican peasant village hires seven gunfighters to help defend their homes.
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What critics compared The Magnificent Seven to
Become a fan on Facebook Follow on Twitter Review by Mark Dujsik | September 22, 2016 The distinct rhythm of Elmer Bernstein's timeless theme to 1960's The Magnificent Seven can be heard amidst the score of this new iteration of the story.
Overall, “The Magnificent Seven” is a worthy tribute to the original 1960 classic, and it’s a great ride for fans of action or westerns.
That's because the plot of The Magnificent Seven already powered a previous Western starring Yul Brenner, Eli Wallach and Steve McQueen that hit in 1960, and that movie additionally was lifted from Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai released in 1954.
It's called The Magnificent Seven, which marks it as a remake of a remake - the 1960 original Western lifted its plot from the 1954 Akira Kurosawa film Seven Samurai.
John Sturges, director of 1960's The Magnificent Seven , also made – deep breath – Bad Day at Black Rock , Gunfight at the OK Corral , The Great Escape and Ice Station Zebra among other classics.
The title itself is a nod to John Sturges' genre landmark "The Magnificent Seven" (also referenced by Quentin Tarantino's upcoming homage "The Hateful Eight").
Anyway, the film from frequent Sandler collaborator Frank Coraci (“The Wedding Singer,” “The Waterboy,” “Click”) is a Western, in theory, because it takes place in the American West and it’s a knock-off of “The Magnificent Seven.”
"The Ridiculous Six" (really, really not to be confused with "The Magnificent Seven" or Tarantino's upcoming "The Hateful Eight") arrived Friday on Netflix; you've already heard about Native Americans walking off set because they were being disrespected, which was no surprise.
Mired in pre-release controversy over its supposedly offensive characterizations of Native Americans — which drove some extras to abandon the project — Sandler’s first of four exclusive features for Netflix turns out to be distasteful in every regard, an abysmal riff on “The Magnificent Seven” in which hoary stereotypes and oater clichés are exploited for equally groan-worthy gags.
Ostensibly a spoof of “The Magnificent Seven” and other classic frontier epics (as well as a conveniently timed appetizer before Quentin Tarantino’s forthcoming “The Hateful Eight”), “The Ridiculous 6” poses no challenge to “Blazing Saddles” in that particular department, and indeed might as well have been titled “Western Movie,” given its resemblance to the barrel-bottom-scraping spoofs of the Friedberg/Seltzer school.
Spanning a punishing two-hour run-time (only eight minutes shorter than The Magnificent Seven, but with several more references to "weenie pee-pee"), the adventure takes many detours.
That Kurosawa's film was a Japanese interpretation of the cowboys-and-Indians Western genre, which echoed back to spawn John Sturges's "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), is evidence of Kurosawa's deep assimilation of an American genre to a seemingly esoteric Japanese subject matter.
Comparison, too, can be made to both “Seven Samurai” and “The Magnificent Seven” as each of Arthur’s followers has some special skill that they bring to the equation and to the fight.
The Magnificent Seven is a Kurosawa knockoff, but an entertaining and memorable one.
It's sporadically rousing and the script (by David Franzoni, who wrote "Gladiator") is occasionally clever, but it's not well directed, the casting creates few sparks and it comes off as an uninspired remake of "The Magnificent Seven" in medieval dress.
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The “roadshow” version, available only in 70 mm during the film’s two-week early engagement, showcases the director’s love for sweeping landscape shots and makes the most effective use of Morricone’s evocative score (which recalls his own work for Sergio Leone and Elmer Bernstein’s classic The Magnificent Seven).
Once fortified in a montage reminiscent of “The Seven Samurai” and its Western variant, “The Magnificent Seven,” this “town of death” becomes the site of an amazing 40-minute pitched battle that utilizes sword, arrow, spear, explosive, slingshot and ‒ here’s a new one ‒ burning bull.
They were the days of " The Great Escape ," " The Guns of Navarone ," " The Magnificent Seven " and dozens of other films, none of which "The Expendables" happens to resemble all that much.
"The Expendables" is a lazy approximation of "The Magnificent Seven" - hired killers finding some moral reason to save an oppressed people - but the tough-guy atmosphere is severely compromised by the Botox and tanning salon measures used to preserve the aging cast.
Instead of an irreverent, wisecracking version of “The Dirty Dozen” or “The Magnificent Seven,” you get a chaotic CGI/special effects jamboree whose only aim is to take down (not unlike the equally disappointing “X-Men: Apocalypse” ) two ancient underworld spirits pissed off they’re no longer considered gods by mankind.
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It's Shane in Shane, the Seven in The Magnificent Seven.
Continuing the franchise tradition that no sequel can have a standardised name, the actual onscreen title is Furious 6, which is first off, a great companion to Fast Five, but also, in a wholly unexpected and clever way, a descriptor of the content, after the fashion of The Magnificent Seven .