THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

Director John Sturges
Writers William Roberts, Walter Newman, Walter Bernstein
Stars Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Eli Wallach
Certificate 12
Running time 2 hours 6 minutes
Made US, 1960

FEW Westerns remain so vividly in the mind as John Sturges's 1960 classic. The first of several Hollywood remakes of Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai", this is a heroic yarn about a bunch of handpicked gunslingers who come together to save a Mexican village from marauding bandits. There is lots of manly interactions and the lasting impression is of cowboys bounding across the landscape to Elmer Berstein's rousing score (the music will stay with you for life).

The star-studded cast includes Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Eli Wallach (as the head of the bandits) and Yul Bryner, who as the laconic leader of the Seven, must round up his bunch of misfits to got to work. At the time the film came out, Bryner was really the only big name, having just won an Oscar for "The Kind and I". So watching so many stars in the early stages of their career makes this all the more fun.

The Fixer