The Magnificent Seven Collection [DVD]

If, like me, you grew up in the UK between, say, 1975-1990, you will be well aware of a certain number of films which made up the bulk of family TV during public holidays. The Magnificent Seven is undoubtedly chief among these. No bank holiday Monday was ever complete without the heroics of Yul Bryner & Co. enlivening our living rooms and the sound of Elmer Bernstein's fabulous score ringing in our ears.

And this lovely memory of days gone by suggests to me the strength and weakness of this tremendously popular film. On the one hand, Seven is a blast from start to finish - great fun! But on the other hand, in order to rattle along at a suitably action-packed pace the film lacks sufficent characterisation and plot development to lift it out of the best of the rest category and into the all time greats (of the genre, that is). Sure, there are characters and there is a plot but they are, let's be honest, pretty thin on the ground.

Nevertheless, the film is highly enjoyable and definitely worth repeated viewing. The DVD extras are nice, particularly the feature on the making of the film. There are interviews with some of the cast, crew and folk behind the film and a few nuggets of info which make watching the film a little more fun.

For example, a lot is made of the young Steve McQueen's attempts to be the star of the film and the little acting tricks he employed to capture the camera's, and hence the viewers' attention. Several anecdotes relating to this are told and are great fun to hear!

At its heart, Seven was a vehicle for six rising Hollywood stars and the established star, Yul Bryner. The chemistry between them and the friction on and off the screen adds to the dramatic effect of the film and the results are...dare I say it, magnificent!

Yes this Blu ray release of The Magnificent Seven is the best the film has looked. There is so much more sharpness to the original film, and makes the old video tape releases look rather sub standard compared to this. You can tell that the soundtrack in the movie has been cleaned up and the dialogue too, creating a whole new experience of the movie with the capabilities of this superior format. Tremendous service from Amazon yet again, arrived in lovely time, it is also a considerable upgrade from the normal DVD release, I personally could tell straight away, it's all more vivid and audiable.

It's difficult to make one sweeping statement about a box set that has such a wide range of quality in it... 5 stars to one star in the same box set...

Suffice to say The Magnificent Seven is a classic - a movie inspired by a greater classic, `Seven Samurai'. There is a truly elegiac and iconic quality that few other Westerns ever reached. The score, the acting, the actors who all (well, almost all) went on to become big stars, and a message of hope for the average man and redemption for men who are willing to stand up for them. Crucially there is a baddie who is fully fleshed out, in a wonderfully nuanced performance by Eli Wallach - a part which is often overlooked in the success of the movie. If you haven't seen it, then this special edition is the way to go, with remastered sound and full of extras.

The others fail massively in two respects - firstly, none of them have a baddie as fully fleshed and worthy of the fight as Wallach. The `good guys' are focussed on with the baddie filling a mere two dimensional part of the story. Secondly, John Sturges who directed the original excelled as an ensemble director - every character in the original is memorable and given their moment to shine. The same is sadly not true of the others, which tend to focus primarily on the role of Chris, the principal gunfighter.

On the plus side, Elmer Bernstein scores them all - the classic and instantly hummable music almost becoming a character in the movies, and carrying the weaker sequels through their doldrums.

So how do the sequels shape up?

- Return of the Magnificent Seven ***

From the original in 1960, 6 years passed before a sequel came about. Yul Brynner returned, but Steve McQueen, by this time a rising star, did not. The replacement Robert Fuller in the role McQueen made his own, is a gaping black hole with his charisma and conviction sucked out, from which the movie does not recover. This movie is less heroic than the first - 10 years have passed and Chris and Vin have become melancholic as the West they know disappears, and the life they know with it. However, they find themselves going back to rescue their friend from the same village featured in the first movie. It is a bit of a stretch of a plot to wring out a sequel - the problem is that this sequel has nowhere to go... however it does make a stab at advancing the characters, while not shirking on the final gunfight, and Brynner has his moments of redeeming the others in his band as the journey progresses. Ironically the director, well known for TV but not theatrical movies, went on to film another TV sequel to a John Sturges movie - The Great Escape II.

- Guns of the Magnificent Seven ***

This time, George Kennedy fills Brynner's boots - or rather actually quite different boots. This is still the character of Chris, but now he has lost the trademark dark clothes, gained a head of hair and become more chatty.. however, he does keep his passion for long cigars...

This time Monte Markham co-stars as a Steve-McQueen-like role, significantly better than Fuller did in the previous movie. And George Kennedy is certainly no disaster in the role - he plays it with conviction and the same moral compass from the previous outings. This movie, as `Return...' was, is shot in Spain, and somehow the result is that the Mexicans are more believable characters. Again, the music and memories of the characters from the original, help carry through the plot holes and weak story. Kennedy does elevate the proceedings above forgettable, but not by much.

- The Magnificent Seven Ride! *

This surely must have been a TV movie - the acting, the sets, everything about it is downscaled. Even the music is done by a diminished orchestra - while still recognisable from its classic origins, it is a pale shadow of its past - the same for which can be said about the rest of the movie.

In fact, there is almost a nasty side to this movie. All the women they rescue have had their husbands killed and been raped multiple times - and yet when Chris's thugs (this time taken from prison) come into town to reluctantly rescue them, they respond by flirting and at the end we see one of the Seven stay to form a life with not one, but three of them! Even the character of Chris as played by Lee van Cleef is a nasty piece of work - embittered, refusing to help a friend and completely lacking the moral code from the previous movies. Perhaps this was truly a sign of the times as the disillusionment of the 70's broke the optimism that was the trademark of the American Western, and the revenge cycle of Italian Westerns became the norm.

In short, the sequels are not disasters, but don't deserve to share the same name as the original. Casting is sporadically interesting, but lacks the genius of the original. No extras other than trailers on any of the sequel discs.

If you're a Western fan , or just have to know what the sequels to a classic movie are like, then this is the way to get them - preferably as a rental. But if it is the original you want and you're wondering whether to go the whole way and get all four..? I suggest stick to getting the original.