The Magnificent Seven
They were seven…and they fought like seven hundred!
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
Production
Budget
$2 000 000
Revenue
$4 905 000
Director
Scenario
Composer
Producer
Actors
Yul Brynner
Chris Adams
Eli Wallach
Calvera
Charles Bronson
Bernardo O'Reilly
Brad Dexter
Harry Luck
James Coburn
Britt
Horst Buchholz
Chico
Short description
A small village in northern Mexico is terrorized year after year by Calvera and his bandits, who take what little the farmers have and punish anyone who resists. Unable to fight back on their own, the villagers cross into the United States to look for help and find Chris Adams, a calm and experienced gunman. He agrees to gather men willing to defend the village, and together they recruit six others, each a capable fighter with his own reasons for taking the job.
John Sturges directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by Walter Bernstein, Walter Newman and William Roberts. It was the eighth of the eighteen features he directed in chronological order, coming between Never So Few and The Great Escape. Yul Brynner plays Chris Adams, with Eli Wallach as Calvera. The group also includes Steve McQueen as Vin, Charles Bronson as Bernardo O'Reilly, Robert Vaughn as Lee and Brad Dexter as Harry Luck.
The production cost about two million dollars and returned roughly five million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.7 out of 10 from around 110,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.5 out of 10 from about two thousand votes; a critics' rating of 8.1 out of 10 from eighty reviews places it slightly above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- In "Seven Samurai" (1954), none of the bandits are named, while in "The Magnificent Seven," the role of Calvera, important to the film, appears.
- The image of Brynner's hero was also humorously refracted in the science fiction novel by the Strugatsky brothers, “Expedition to Hell,” where the bald captain of space pirates, Two-Headed Yul, operates, ultimately being reformed into a good man.
- On July 13, 1962, Nikita Khrushchev, in a conversation with American journalists, criticized the film: “I watched the movie ‘The Magnificent Seven.’ The actors in it play wonderfully. We released it on the screen and received many reprimands for it. Teachers spoke out in our press. A critical article was published titled ‘A Failing Grade for the Seven.’ This article stated that the film had a bad effect on the upbringing of young people. I agree with the teachers. You Americans often have such films on the screens where people beat each other’s faces, torture, and kill people, and there is a lot of perversion in the films. You consider this interesting. For us, the preaching of such phenomena is harmful…”. Naturally, the Soviet press held the same point of view.
- On the set of the film, Yul Brynner celebrated his wedding with Doris Kleiner.
- Gene Wilder auditioned for the role of Vin.
- Filming took place in the USA and Mexico from March 1st to April 1960.
- In "The Magnificent Seven", the character of Chico combines traits of two characters from the film "Seven Samurai" (1954) – the young samurai Katsushiro Okamoto and the impostor samurai Kikuchiyo. Even the names are chosen accordingly. Kikuchiyo means 'boy,' and he was nicknamed that because he presented the samurai with documents stating he was 13 years old. Chico, translated from Spanish, also means 'boy,' and he is the youngest of the seven.
- The film's cast was assembled very quickly in order to complete casting before the next actors' strike.
- In the final scene of the film, three boys come to Bernardo’s grave, lay flowers, and make the sign of the cross. Two do it like Catholics – from left to right. One, the one in the center, – from right to left, like an Orthodox Christian.
- Firearms were traditionally considered unacceptable for samurai, and in "Seven Samurai" (1954) they were used only by bandits. In "The Magnificent Seven," this motif is completely excluded by moving the action to the late 19th century.
- To obtain permission to film in Mexico, the filmmakers had to make some changes to the script. In its initial version, like in Kurosawa’s film, the elder immediately suggested the peasants hire protectors, but Mexican officials disliked this moment – in their opinion, it created the impression that Mexicans couldn’t defend themselves.
- Many moments from the film were parodied in John Landis's comedy "¡Three Amigos!" (1986). Elmer Bernstein composed the music for this film, as he did for "The Magnificent Seven."
- Robert Vaughn, who played the role of Lee in the film, also played Judge Oren Travis in the television series “The Magnificent Seven” (1998-2000).
- Brynner, who was shorter in stature than Steve McQueen, meticulously ensured he appeared taller in scenes with McQueen. To achieve this, a small mound of earth was piled up where Brynner was supposed to stand. McQueen, passing by these mounds, would deliberately stomp them down out of spite. Brynner and McQueen constantly competed on screen: McQueen would intentionally 'pull the blanket over himself,' shifting his hat to the back of his head or onto the bridge of his nose, or doing something else unnecessary but clearly visible to the camera. This greatly irritated Brynner, and he even hired a special assistant to count how many times McQueen needlessly adjusted his hat during filming.
- An important scene from "Seven Samurai" (1954), in which the peasants kill a captured bandit, is completely omitted from the plot of "The Magnificent Seven."
- The film ranks second in attendance among all foreign films released in Soviet cinemas.
- In order to obtain permission to film in Mexico, the filmmakers had to make some changes to the script. In its original version, as in Kurosawa's film, the elder immediately suggested that the peasants hire defenders, but this moment did not appeal to Mexican officials – in their opinion, it created the impression that Mexicans could not defend themselves. As a result, in the film, the village elder sends the peasants across the border with the task of buying weapons.
- Sterling Hayden was initially cast as Britt, but for an unknown reason, he was unable to film. James Coburn suggested James Coburn for the role of Britt – they had been friends with Coburn since school. Coburn was a big fan of the film “Seven Samurai” (1954) and particularly liked the samurai Kyuzo, whose analogue in “The Magnificent Seven” was precisely the role of Britt.
- Mexican officials granted permission to film on the condition that the peasants in the film were required to wear clean white shirts. They also demanded that screenwriter Walter Newman travel to the filming location in advance to familiarize himself with the life of Mexican farmers, but Newman refused. William Roberts made changes to the script that were significant enough for him to receive a credit as a co-writer, however, Newman did not want to be a “co-author” of his script and ultimately removed his name from the credits altogether.
- Steve McQueen really wanted to star in this film, but he was not released from filming the television series “Wanted: Dead or Alive” (1958). McQueen, however, crashed a car and, pretending to be sick, secretly filmed in “The Magnificent Seven” without the television studio’s knowledge.
- The future famous composer John Williams participated in recording the music for this film – he played the piano in the orchestra.
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Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
