It
is kind of interesting to note that John Sturges' THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
($20), which is one of the great American westerns, is actually based
upon the Japanese movie THE SEVEN SAMURAI. Even more interesting
is the fact that Akira Kurosawa, who directed THE SEVEN SAMURAI,
was himself influenced by watching many of the great American westerns.
It may be cliché to say the following, but I guess what goes around comes
around, and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
While
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN tells a fairly simple story of right and
wrong, it gains complexity from the moral ambiguity of its characters.
The heroes of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN are killers, as is the film's
villain. However, it is the "hows" and the "whys"
of their actions is where the distinction is drawn. The plot of THE
MAGNIFICENT SEVEN concerns a small Mexican farming community that
is continually being plundered by a bandit named Calvera (Eli Wallach)
and his men. Tired of living off the crumbs that the bandits leave for
them, a group of the farmers cross the boarder to hire several professional
gunfighters, who they hope will drive away the bandit gang once and for
all. Although they have barely enough money to hire one gunfighter, Chris
(Yul Brynner) recognizes the importance of helping the farmers, who are
offering everything they have as payment. After a bit of a hard sell,
Chris is able to convince several of his fellow gunfighters to take up
the good fight. Of course, the gunfighters realize that getting rid of
Calvera isn't going to be easy, so they also teach the farmers how to
fight for themselves, as well as helping them to fortify their village
against the next bandit raid.
The
strength of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN lays in director John Sturges
incredible talent to tell a story with simple, yet powerful visuals, not
to mention a cast that brings their characters to unquestionable life.
While Yul Brynner's incredible screen presence allows him to dominate
much of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, all of his co-stars leave their
mark on the film as well. Steve McQueen was an up and coming actor at
the time THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN was made, but his performance has
his undeniable star quality all over it. Eli Wallach’s performance has
an over-the-top quality to it, which suits the film’s larger-than-life
villain Calvera perfectly. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN also features
outstanding work from Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James
Coburn and Horst Buchholz in an impressive American screen debut.
MGM
Home Entertainment has made THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN available on
DVD in a wide screen presentation that recreates the film's 2.35:1 theatrical
proportions, in addition to being enhanced for playback on 16:9 displays.
Up front, let me say that THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN has never looked
great on video due to the age of the film elements, which have displayed
both wear and fading. I would imagine the popularity of this 1960 release
must have contributed to the aged look of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN.
The new high definition transfer created for the DVD release isn't perfect,
but it is a significant improvement over everything that has preceded
it. The down-converted image on the DVD is sharper and better defined
than in earlier releases, although nowhere near the levels of a new movie.
However, for an un-restored film that has already reached the four-decade
mark, the picture looks pretty darn good. Digital processing appears to
have been deployed to clean up many of the age related blemishes, which
were quite noticeable on previous video incarnations of the film, although
the opening credits look as though they could have use more work. Film
grain remains noticeable throughout the presentation and I doubt that
anything short of a full restoration of the film elements will alleviate
that problem. The new transfer improves colors, which appear stronger
and better defined than they were in the past. Most of the dusty western
hues look very solid, and are reproduced without distortion. The blacks
are fairly inky and deep; however, the level of shadow detail is limited
by the age of the production and the film stocks used in the original
photography. Clean dual layer authoring masks all traces of digital compression
artifacts.
For
this release THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is presented with a newly mixed
Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack. The music receives most of the benefit
of the re-mix, since it is spread across the listening environment to
create a more theatrical sound. Still, the fidelity of these forty-year-old
recordings is limited, making Elmer Bernstein's classic score sound thin
and brittle. There are some directional sound effects that creep into
the rear channels, but the mix never tries to push the source material
too far. Dialogue is clean sounding and fully intelligible, although the
voices do have a certain flatness that can only be attributed to the age
of the recordings. As you might expect, there is no real bass coming from
the low frequency channel. Despite age and sonic limitations, the sound
is free from noticeable hiss and distortion, making the remixed track
a very viable listening option. Also present on the DVD is the original
monaural soundtrack, which has similar audio quality, but lacks any form
of multi-channel enhancement. Spanish and French monaural soundtracks
have also been encoded onto the DVD, as have French and Spanish subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound enhance the DVD's interactive menus.
Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection and
set up features, as well as a few solid supplements. Producer Walter Mirisch,
assistant director Robert Relyea, along with actors Eli Wallach and James
Coburn are featured on a running commentary track. This is a great track,
featuring a lot of behind-the-scenes information on the production, as
well as the personalities involved in making this western classic. Also
included on the DVD is the documentary Guns for Hire: The Making
of The Magnificent Seven. Running forty-six minutes, the documentary
includes interviews with the surviving members of both the cast and crew,
as well as older interviews with those that have passed on. There is plenty
of great material in the documentary, although it does rehash some bits
that are covered in the audio commentary. Filling out the supplements
are two theatrical trailers, plus a still file of production photographs
and publicity materials.
There
is no disputing that THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is one of the greatest
and most popular westerns of all time. MGM Home Entertainment has done
a very good job of transcribing this forty-year-old film to the digital
medium, plus they are offering some fine supplements on the disc. Movie
buffs and western fans will certainly want to add this DVD to their collections.
Recommended.
It
is kind of interesting to note that John Sturges' THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
($20), which is one of the great American westerns, is actually based
upon the Japanese movie THE SEVEN SAMURAI. Even more interesting
is the fact that Akira Kurosawa, who directed THE SEVEN SAMURAI,
was himself influenced by watching many of the great American westerns.
It may be cliché to say the following, but I guess what goes around comes
around, and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
While
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN tells a fairly simple story of right and
wrong, it gains complexity from the moral ambiguity of its characters.
The heroes of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN are killers, as is the film's
villain. However, it is the "hows" and the "whys"
of their actions is where the distinction is drawn. The plot of THE
MAGNIFICENT SEVEN concerns a small Mexican farming community that
is continually being plundered by a bandit named Calvera (Eli Wallach)
and his men. Tired of living off the crumbs that the bandits leave for
them, a group of the farmers cross the boarder to hire several professional
gunfighters, who they hope will drive away the bandit gang once and for
all. Although they have barely enough money to hire one gunfighter, Chris
(Yul Brynner) recognizes the importance of helping the farmers, who are
offering everything they have as payment. After a bit of a hard sell,
Chris is able to convince several of his fellow gunfighters to take up
the good fight. Of course, the gunfighters realize that getting rid of
Calvera isn't going to be easy, so they also teach the farmers how to
fight for themselves, as well as helping them to fortify their village
against the next bandit raid.
The
strength of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN lays in director John Sturges
incredible talent to tell a story with simple, yet powerful visuals, not
to mention a cast that brings their characters to unquestionable life.
While Yul Brynner's incredible screen presence allows him to dominate
much of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, all of his co-stars leave their
mark on the film as well. Steve McQueen was an up and coming actor at
the time THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN was made, but his performance has
his undeniable star quality all over it. Eli Wallach’s performance has
an over-the-top quality to it, which suits the film’s larger-than-life
villain Calvera perfectly. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN also features
outstanding work from Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James
Coburn and Horst Buchholz in an impressive American screen debut.
MGM
Home Entertainment has made THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN available on
DVD in a wide screen presentation that recreates the film's 2.35:1 theatrical
proportions, in addition to being enhanced for playback on 16:9 displays.
Up front, let me say that THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN has never looked
great on video due to the age of the film elements, which have displayed
both wear and fading. I would imagine the popularity of this 1960 release
must have contributed to the aged look of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN.
The new high definition transfer created for the DVD release isn't perfect,
but it is a significant improvement over everything that has preceded
it. The down-converted image on the DVD is sharper and better defined
than in earlier releases, although nowhere near the levels of a new movie.
However, for an un-restored film that has already reached the four-decade
mark, the picture looks pretty darn good. Digital processing appears to
have been deployed to clean up many of the age related blemishes, which
were quite noticeable on previous video incarnations of the film, although
the opening credits look as though they could have use more work. Film
grain remains noticeable throughout the presentation and I doubt that
anything short of a full restoration of the film elements will alleviate
that problem. The new transfer improves colors, which appear stronger
and better defined than they were in the past. Most of the dusty western
hues look very solid, and are reproduced without distortion. The blacks
are fairly inky and deep; however, the level of shadow detail is limited
by the age of the production and the film stocks used in the original
photography. Clean dual layer authoring masks all traces of digital compression
artifacts.
For
this release THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is presented with a newly mixed
Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack. The music receives most of the benefit
of the re-mix, since it is spread across the listening environment to
create a more theatrical sound. Still, the fidelity of these forty-year-old
recordings is limited, making Elmer Bernstein's classic score sound thin
and brittle. There are some directional sound effects that creep into
the rear channels, but the mix never tries to push the source material
too far. Dialogue is clean sounding and fully intelligible, although the
voices do have a certain flatness that can only be attributed to the age
of the recordings. As you might expect, there is no real bass coming from
the low frequency channel. Despite age and sonic limitations, the sound
is free from noticeable hiss and distortion, making the remixed track
a very viable listening option. Also present on the DVD is the original
monaural soundtrack, which has similar audio quality, but lacks any form
of multi-channel enhancement. Spanish and French monaural soundtracks
have also been encoded onto the DVD, as have French and Spanish subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound enhance the DVD's interactive menus.
Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection and
set up features, as well as a few solid supplements. Producer Walter Mirisch,
assistant director Robert Relyea, along with actors Eli Wallach and James
Coburn are featured on a running commentary track. This is a great track,
featuring a lot of behind-the-scenes information on the production, as
well as the personalities involved in making this western classic. Also
included on the DVD is the documentary Guns for Hire: The Making
of The Magnificent Seven. Running forty-six minutes, the documentary
includes interviews with the surviving members of both the cast and crew,
as well as older interviews with those that have passed on. There is plenty
of great material in the documentary, although it does rehash some bits
that are covered in the audio commentary. Filling out the supplements
are two theatrical trailers, plus a still file of production photographs
and publicity materials.
There
is no disputing that THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is one of the greatest
and most popular westerns of all time. MGM Home Entertainment has done
a very good job of transcribing this forty-year-old film to the digital
medium, plus they are offering some fine supplements on the disc. Movie
buffs and western fans will certainly want to add this DVD to their collections.
Recommended.
