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Director John Sturges' remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese epic "Seven Samurai" ranks as one of the greatest westerns ever made. Along with Robert Aldritch's 1953 shoot'em saga "Vera Cruz," "The Magnificent Seven" exerted considerable influence the look and subject matter of many Spaghetti westerns. Sturges had gained an impressive reputation in the genre with two contemporary westerns "The Walking Hills" and "Bad Day at Black Rock" as well as his frontier oaters "Backlash," "Escape from Fort Bravo," "The Law and Jake Wade," "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," and "Last Train from Gun Hill." Sturges specialized in all-male ensemble actioneers with tough guys in the life and death situations. Visually, he relied on low-angle photography to give his pictures a larger-than-life look, and he staged his gunfight sequences as if they were football game strategies.
Sturges began a long association with "The Ten Commandants" composer Elmer Bernstein on "The Magnificent Seven." Not only did Bernstein receive an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score for his music on "The Magnificent Seven," but he also got an Oscar nod when he reprised his score in Burt Kennedy's 1966 sequel "Return of the Seven." Aside from Sturges' masterful direction, "The Magnificent Seven" boasts a top-notch cast. Sturges was largely responsible for these brilliant casting choices. Many of them, including Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, and Charles Bronson, later achieved superstar prominence during the 1960s. "The Magnificent Seven" was lensed on location by Charles Lang in Durango, Mexico, and on some rather obvious sets at Churubusco Studios, Mexico City. A campfire scene and the scene where they have their firearms thrown down in front of them are the two offending scenes. Lang had filmed "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" as well as "Last Train from Gun Hill" with Sturges and would go on to shoot the unlikeliest Sturges movie "A Girl Named Tamiko."
"The Magnificent Seven" takes place in the late 19th century. The first scene occurs in a small, anonymous Mexican village as a ruthless bandit, Calvera (Eli Wallach of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"), and his 40 gunmen steal enough food to feed themselves. Nevertheless, they always leave behind enough so the villagers aren't entirely destitute. After Calvera and his gang depart, the campesinos convene in the square to formulate a plan of defense. "If he takes our crop, we might as well cut our throats and be done with it," laments one farmer. They visit the Old Man (Russian character actor Vladimir Sokoloff of "Cloak and Dagger") and solicit his advice. "Fight," the old man urges them. "Go to the border and buy guns."
The frontier west has settled down and our heroes are roaming the land in search of work. Chris (Oscar winning actor Yul Brynner of "The King and I") and Vin cross paths in a dusty little hamlet when the local citizens refuse to let an Indian named Old Sam be buried in a predominantly white cemetery. "How long has this been going on?" inquires a traveling salesman. "Since the town got civilized," remarks the undertaker, Chamlee (Whit Bissell) and tries to give corset salesman Henry (Val Avery of "The Anderson Tapes") his twenty dollars back. Three of the villagers arrive in town as Chris and Vin (Steve McQueen of "The Blob") decide to drive the hearse up to Boot Hill. The hearse contains the body of an old Indian named Sam and certain townspeople don't want to see Sam buried alongside their friends and relatives. "Never ridden shotgun on a hearse," quips Vin as he settles in next to Chris and rattles the shotgun shells before inserting them into the barrels. The entire town creeps along behind them as they ascend Boot Hill and find a reception of armed men awaiting them. Chris wounds two men trying to block their way and the townspeople unload the coffin and bury it. Chris puts slugs in one man's shoulder and in another man's hand so that he throws down his revolver.
Later, the three villagers approach Chris and ask him to help them buy guns. "Men are cheaper than guns," Chris advises them, and they assemble six men. The pay is a double eagle for four to six weeks with food and board thrown into the bargain. So moved is Chris by their earnestness that he decides to help them. "I've been offered a lot for my work," he assures the Mexicans, "but never everything." Initially, Vin is reluctant about joining up. When he learns the job pays twenty dollars, he shrugs, "Wouldn't pay for my bullets." The third man to join up is gold-seeking Harry Luck (Brad Dexter) who believes that there must be more to it if the Cajun-speaking Chris has decided to him the villagers. Bernando O'Reilly (Charles Bronson) is chopping wood for his breakfast when Chris offers him twenty dollars. "Right now that's a lot of money," he agrees. Britt (James Coburn) and Lee (Robert Vaughn) and a Mexican farmer turned gunfighter, Chico (German born actor Horst Buchholz), follow. At first, Chico doesn't make the grade, but later he proves his worthiness. Chico's first encounter with Chris doesn't bode well for their later association. Chris has devised a method to determine how fast a man is with his six-gun. He steps in close and claps his hands together. He grabs Chico's gun between his hands. Chico melts with fear and humiliation and retreats in shame because he cannot beat Chris on the draw.
The seven teach the villagers to defend themselves with rifles they obtain from Calvera's men sent to spy on them. During the annual founding day celebration, three outlaws come to look over the village, but they don't leave alive. Britt calls on Lee to join him, and they settle down by the outlaws' horses and await their return. Chico sneaks after them. The bandits surprise Chico. He kills one and Britt kills the other two. One of them he knocks off his horse as the bandit is riding over a crest. Chico marvels at the accuracy. Britt explains that he wanted to shoot the horse, so they could take the man back alive. The seven also toil to erect new walls in the village. "They won't keep me out," Calvera surveys them on his return to the village with his forty gunmen. Chris explains, "They were made to keep you in." A gunfight erupts. All seven survive the first foray, but the triumphant villagers are caught off-guard when Calvera's men hang around. When combat breaks out again, the villagers split into fractions. Half decide hiring the seven constituted a mistake. Chris and company change tactics, mount an offensive against Calvera, but find his camp empty. When they arrive back in the village, the seven discover that one fraction has sold them out, but Calvera refuses to kill them. He fears that their friends from up north might retaliate so he takes their guns and lets his men escort them to the border.
"The Magnificent Seven" brims with irony. The Old Man advises the villagers to buy guns, but Chris tells them that men with guns are cheaper. Although the hiring price of twenty dollars is low, the high-priced O'Reilly joins because "right now twenty dollars is a lot." Similarly, Chris signs on because nobody has ever paid him everything. Lee suffers from paranoia so he decides to hide out in the worst place imaginable. "The final supreme idiocy," he confesses, "a deserter hiding out on a battlefield." The performances are memorable as is William Roberts' dialogue. In one scene, Vin observes, "It took me a long time to learn my elbow from a hot rock." "The Magnificent Seven" qualifies as my favorite western.
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*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Clint Eastwood probably killed more of Adolf Hitler's German soldiers in Brian G. Hutton's "Where Eagles Dare" than he did western outlaws as either Sergio Leone's Man with No Name in the "Dollars" trilogy or criminals as "Dirty Harry" in his five Warner Brothers crime movies. Bestselling Scottish author Alistair MacLean penned the splendid screenplay that he later converted into a much tamer novel about a team of elite British M.I. 6 secret agents that parachute into Germany to rescue a top-ranking officer with a mother lode of knowledge about the June 6th Normandy landings. This atmospheric MGM blockbuster--clocking in at 158 minutes--is probably the greatest action-adventure movie with a World War II setting ever produced. We're talking wall-to-wall gunfire with more surprises and complications than most movies envisage. Burton and Eastwood appear in top form, and busty Ingrid Pitt and Mary Ure as undercover female agentsthey give them considerable help and guidance. "Where Eagles Dare" is also notable for its percussive orchestral soundtrack by composer Rod Goodwin, who carved a niche for himself in World War II movie soundtracks with "633 Squadron," "Force 10 from Navarone," "Operation Crossbow," and "The Battle of Britain." Some war movies take an anti-war stance, but neither Hutton nor MacLean had higher ideals on their collective minds when they made this war-as-an-adventure epic. If you are a World War II movie buff and you haven't seen "Where Eagles Dare," then you need to get yourself a copy of this memorable massacre.
Admiral Rolland (Michael Hordern of "Royal Flash") sends a group of British commandos on a suicidal mission to rescue U.S.A.F.F. General George Carnaby, (Robert Beatty of "2001: A Space Odyssey") one of the overall coordinators of planning for the second front who is imprisoned in an impregnable mountain fortress called the Schloss Adler, a.k.a 'the Castle of the Eagles.' As it turns out, the Schloss Adler is the headquarters for the German Secret Service in Southern Bavaria. Colonel Wyatt Turner, DSO MC (Patrick Wymark of "The League of Gentlemen") informs them that the castle is named appropriately "because only an eagle can get to it." Apparently, on a night flight to Crete, Carnaby's British Mosquito was shot down by a wandering Luftwaffe Messerschmitt and the Mosquito crashed in near the town of Werfen. Major Jonathan Smith (Richard Burton of "Raid on Rommel"), Lieutenant Morris Schaffer (Clint Eastwood of "Kelly's Heroes"), Captain James Christiansen (Donald Houston of "633 Squadron"), Sergeant Harrod (Brook Williams of "The Wild Geese"), Captain Philip Thomas (William Squire of "Alexander the Great"), Sergeant Jock MacPherson (Neil McCarthy of "Zulu"), and Edward Berkeley (Peter Barkworth of "Seven Keys") are to parachute into Germany, enter the castle and snatch Carnaby.
One of the sergeants suggests at the briefing that the R.A.F. fill a bomb-laden plane and crash it into the mountain fortress. Rolland reminds him that killing an American general might anger General Eisenhower. No sooner have our heroes bailed out than one of them, the radio operator, is found dead in the snow with a broken neck. The Gestapo raids a tavern in Werfen and arrests the rest and takes them separately for questioning. Smith and Schaffer are hauled away together, but they manage to escape after their car crashes. Smith and Schaffer then climb atop the cable car that ascends to the Schloss Adler. Simultaneous, one of their undercover agents, Mary Ure, is being escorted by a suave but sadistic Gestapo officer in the cable car to work in the castle.
Once our heroes have gotten into the castle, Smith interrupts a meeting between high ranking German officers and General Carnaby. Smith proves beyond a doubt to SS-Standartenführer Kramer (Anton Diffring of "Heroes of the Telemark") and Gen. Rosemeyer (Ferdy Mayne of "The Fearless Vampire Killers") that he is a double-agent working for the Nazis as well as the British with a night-time call to another high-ranking German general.
Eventually, when it comes time to break out of the castle, Smith relies on Schaffer who plasters the place with trip-wire explosives. Once the Nazis realize what is going on, all hell breaks loose. "Where Eagles Dare" the movie surpasses MacLean's own novel; he wrote the screenplay and he provides Richard Burton with some of the greatest lines that you'll ever hear in the World War II movie. Indeed, "Where Eagles Dare" is the best World War II thriller that Burton and Eastwood ever made, with Burton making more W.W. II thrillers than Eastwood. The rest of the cast is first-rate and composer Rod Goodwin of "633 Squadron" provides a memorable score that ramps up the action and intrigue. At 158 minutes, "Where Eagles Dare" never lets up on either action or excitement. The surprises that crop up in the narrative match the sizzling action sequences. Clearly, this is Brian Hutton's most memorable film, far better than the action comedy romp that he went on to direct "Kelly's Heroes" with Clint Eastwood after "Where Eagles Dare" wrapped. For the record, the propeller driven plane that appears during the opening credits is vintage Nazi plane. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the fighter planes that Smith and Schaffer blow up in the last major shoot out sequence.
Hollywood has yet to equal "Where Eagles Dare."
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