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Features: Collector's Edition, DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.35:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), Mono Audio, English, Subtitled, French, Spanish, Dubbed & Subtitled
Spectacular gun battles, epic-sized heroes and an all-star cast that includes Academy Award winners Yul Brynner and James Coburn, together with Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach and Charles Bronson, make The Magnificent Seven a legend among westerns. Spawning three sequels and a successful television series, and featuring Elmer Bernstein's Oscar-nominated score, this stunning remake of The Seven Samurai is a "hard-hitting adventure" (Newsweek) and "an enduringly popular" (Leonard Maltin) cinematic classic.Merciless Calvera (Wallach) and his band of ruthless outlaws are terrorizing a poor Mexican village, and even the bravest gunmen can't stop them. Desperate, the locals hire Chris Adams (Brynner) and six other gunmen to defend them. With time running out before Calvera's next raid, the heroic seven must prepare the villagers for battle and help them find the courage to take back their town...or die trying!
"Genuinely magnificent!" Los Angeles Times
"...an excellent film." The Motion Picture Guide
Editor's Note
John Sturges's remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 classic THE SEVEN SAMURAI has become an influential film in its own right. A small Mexican village that makes involuntary donations of its harvest to a gang of bandits led by Calvera (Eli Wallach) decides to hire a group of professional gunmen, headed by gunslinger-for-hire Chris (Yul Brynner), to protect them. Despite the meager pay, Chris and Vin (Steve McQueen) sign on after the Mexicans see them confront some racist thugs. As they ride to the village, Chris picks up some other gunmen, including Bernardo (Charles Bronson), Lee (Robert Vaughan), Britt (James Coburn), Harry (Brad Dexter), and aspiring gunslinger Chico (Horst Buchholz). The Mexicans, who are at first ambivalent about having gunmen hanging around their town, finally let down their guard and allow their visitors to teach them how to shoot and how to reconfigure the town to defend against Calvera. When the bandits return, they find harvesting the crops a little more challenging. This rousing, perfectly cast action film launched the careers of Bronson, McQueen, and Coburn. It also benefits tremendously from the unforgettably polyrhythmic score by Elmer Bernstein, among the most famous in film history. So popular was the film's theme that it was used to sell Marlboro cigarettes for years afterward.
Plot Summary
A band of marauding outlaws periodically pillages a poor Mexican town, angering its helpless inhabitants. In response, the frightened villagers hire a team of seven desperadoes to defend them--and to teach them how to defend themselves. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is one of the finest Westerns to ever come out of Hollywood, featuring some of the same cast that starred in THE GREAT ESCAPE.
| Features | 2-DVD Set | | Audio Commentary | | Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono | | Audio: English, French, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Featurettes: Christopher Frayling On The Magnificent Seven; Elmer Bernstein And The Magnificent Seven; The Lines Book: Lost Images From The Magnificent Seven | | Interactive Menus | | Photo Gallery | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Sony Pictures |
| Release Date: 5/13/2008 |
| Running Time: 128 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1960 | | Catalog ID: 13197 | | UPC: 00027616131973 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (1961) | | | Elmer Bernstein, Nominee, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture |
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| | Professional Reviews | USA Today
"...The film is fun to watch..." 03/14/1994 p.3DSight and Sound
"...Hugely popular..." 09/01/2001 p.58 Uncut
5 stars out of 5 -- "Brynner dominates, while the screenplay questions the nature of true heroism." 05/01/2006 p.150 The Onion AV Club 7 of 10
As for the film itself, it holds up very well: Though lacking some of the depth of Kurosawa's version, it's a marvelous piece of entertainment with tense action complemented by charismatic performances from its stars. It's also a reminder, worth examining in the middle of the summer-movie season, that entertainment on a grand scale doesn't have to jettison good storytelling. - Keith Phipps
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