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The Magnificent Seven (Shout! Factory) UHD/Blu-ray Review

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    Ian Jane
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  • The Magnificent Seven (Shout! Factory) UHD/Blu-ray Review

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    Released by: Shout! Factory
    Released on: February 21st, 2023.
    Director: John Sturges
    Cast: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Eli Wallach
    Year: 1960
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Magnificent Seven – Movie Review:

    John Sturges' remake of the immortal The Seven Samurai stars Eli Wallach as a bandit chief named Calvera who holds a small village in Mexico hostage - if the citizens don't pony up almost all of their harvest, he and his men will kill them. Rather than submit to his demands as they have in the past, this time the villagers decide to pool together what little money they have and hire some gunmen to fight for them.

    Enter Chris Addams (Yul Brynner) and Vin Tanner (Steve McQueen), two well natured gunslingers who prove their moral metal by helping a dead Indian get himself a proper burial up on Boot Hill despite the threat of violence in retaliation. This act impresses the villagers who happen to see it play out and they figure they've found their first man. They make their plea to Addams who then goes about gathering up five more men to help he and Tanner out - Bernardo O'Reilly (Charles Bronson), Lee (Robert Vaughn), Harry Luck (Brad Dexter), Britt (James Coburn) and Chico (Horst Bucholz) - each man signing on for his own reason, be it greed, revenge, or simply a sense of doing what's right. Of course, they're horribly outnumbered and outgunned but if they train the villagers how to defend themselves and play their cards right, they just might be able to save the day….

    Beautifully shot by cinematographer Charles Lang and set to an iconic and instantly recognizable score from legendary composer Elmer Bernstein, The Magnificent Seven is deserving of every bit of its status as a western movie classic. While it doesn't outdo Kurosawa's original it does do a great job of Americanizing the film without dumbing it down or reducing the scope or adventure of the Japanese film (itself influenced by the films of John Ford).

    As great as the movie looks and as great as the movie sounds, however, it's the cast that make this one as enjoyable as it is. Wallach may have seemed an odd choice to play a bandito but he's great in the part and absolutely makes the most of his screen time. Brynner and McQueen have never been cooler nor have they ever been nobler than they are here, while Bronson, Coburn and Vaughn are as cool and as badass as they come. Bucholz, a German actor puzzlingly cast as a Mexican in the film, also does quite well here; better than he probably had any right to do, while Dexter adds some interesting comic relief with his role. Like The Dirty Dozen or the Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven uses its ensemble cast to great effect, making sure we get to know each of the seven gunfighters just enough to like them before opening the flood gates and sending in the bad guys. The whole thing is perfectly paced, never overstaying its welcome and spending just the right amount of time with the set up before giving the audience the finale they all know is coming.

    On an end note, it's interesting to think that Kurosawa's film (heavily influenced by John Ford), would result in The Magnificent Seven, the last 'great' American western to be made before A Fistful Of Dollars (essentially a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo) lead to the onslaught of Spaghetti Westerns which eventually took over and changed things for good. Maybe in some ways the western is more eastern than some people realize.

    The Magnificent Seven – UHD/Blu-ray Review:

    The Magnificent Seven arrives on UHD from Shout! Factory in an HVEC encoded 2160p transfer taken from “new 2022 restoration and color grade using an existing 4K scan of the original camera negative.” Framed at 2.35.1 widescreen with HDR10 and Dolby Vision enhancement, the naturally gritty and grainy looking image is nicely rendered on this disc. There's very solid upgrades in depth and detail to previous 1080p offerings, you'll notice this right from the opening sequence as fine detail pops quite nicely here, especially in the brighter, outdoor sequences. The darker interiors don't show quite as much of an upgrade but are still noticeably better than what we've seen before. Some shots appear a bit softer than others, stemming back to the original photography, but for the most part the image is quite crisp and overall, the image quality on this disc is very strong and always appears appropriately film-like.

    Audio options are provided in 24-bit DTS-HD Mono, 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo and 24-bit DTS-HD 5.1 with optional subtitles provided in English only. Purists will opt for the mono option but the 5.1 track, and to a less extent the stereo track, does a great job of spreading out the score and effects work in in the mix. Dialogue is always clean and clear and the tracks are nicely balanced and free of any hiss or distortion.

    The only extras on the UHD disc are two commentary tracks. The first one is from the film's Producer Walter Mirisch, Assistant Director Robert Relyea, and stars James Coburn and Eli Wallach. If the commentary isn't going to hold you glued to their ever word, the participants do a fine job of strolling down memory lane and talking about how this production came together, their respective parts in it, and the impact that it had on their careers and others as well.

    The second commentary is by Sir Christopher Frayling. It goes over Elmer Bernstein's score, how the movie starts and ends with the farmers in the movie, what each of the core cast members brings to the movie and biographical details on each of them, details on the production history, the Freudian qualities of Robert Vaughn's character, how a strike in Hollywood affected the casting, the different character motivations on display in the movie, the way that religion plays a part in key scenes, how the score and editing and cinematography do such a great job of pumping up the action, why certain shots appear under lit, the dark shift that the movie takes around the eighty minute mark and plenty of other details.

    The included Blu-ray disc has the same two commentary tracks on it as well as the forty-seven minute documentary Guns for Hire: The Making of The Magnificent Seven which includes loads of archival clips and more recent interview bits with most of the core cast and crew members. This documentary covers the creation of the film from start to finish, starting with Yul Brynner buying the American rights to Kurosawa's Seven Samurai to how James Coburn lucked out and got his part to how the different producer credits were agreed open to how John Sturges wound up directing it and the impact of the Hollywood actors strike affected the film. This is not only a very thorough piece but a very interesting one as well, particularly when they discuss Mexican relations issues and how they affected the storyline and characters in the movie.

    The Linen Book: Lost Images from The Magnificent Seven is a fifteen minute piece which is essentially a guided tour, led by MGM archivist Maggie Adams, of images taken on set during the production of the film that were only found a few years ago. It's quite interesting, as is the fifteen minute Elmer Bernstein and the Magnificent Seven in which historian Jon Burlingame discusses the famed composters iconic work on this seminal picture.

    Sir Christopher Frayling On The Magnificent Seven is a twenty-two minute piece that touts the film's influence on western films and on directors like Leone and Peckinpah. It goes over the film's reception by critics, how it compares to other western films, different western movie sub-genres, the cinematography and direction in the movie and why it makes a big difference, the importance of the casting and Brynner's atypical take on a gunslinger, details on the other cast and crew members and the main differences between The Magnificent Seven and The Seven Samurai.

    Rounding out the extras are two trailers for the film and a still gallery, menus and chapter stops.

    The first pressing of this edition comes with a limited edition slipcover.

    The Magnificent Seven - The Final Word:

    The Magnificent Seven is a legitimate classic of its genre, made all the better by a perfect cast and some really strong direction. The UHD/Blu-ray edition from Shout! Factory doesn’t bring anything new to the game in terms of extra features, but it does give the movie a very nice 4k presentation that should make its many fans very happy.


    Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized The Magnificent Seven Blu-ray screen caps!

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