100 Greatest Movies of All Time...That I Own. # 39 ~ The Magnificent Seven

Back to back John Sturges movies.

Sometimes things like that happen.

I would say that I saw this movie for the first time within the last fifteen years.

I was blown away by the movie.  Great actors, great direction, great storytelling.

The movie?

A Bug's Life.

Only that one had a much happier ending for all involved.

So sometime over the last decade, I caught The Magnificent Seven for the first time, and was blown away again!

How could they have copied that great Pixar film, 40 years earlier?

Time travel!

But no, that simply tells you how good the basic premise of the story is.  And no, I've never seen Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, the movie upon which THIS movie was based.

So, about half of the Seven were in yesterday's film, and you know they must've known that working with Sturges was a good thing, because finding two great films like that within three years doesn't happen to many actors.

So the story, for those that have never seen it (and believe me, if you've watched ANY TV or movie in your lifetime, there has been some variation of this story told time after time):

A bad dude and his fellow baddies terrorize a town year after year.  They steal, plunder and basically own the place.  Finally, the townspeople have enough, and they hire...

The A-Team.

See, I told you you've seen this somewhere!

They put out the call for someone to protect their town.

In rides 7 men to stand against the 40+ bad guys and try and save the day.

Naturally, they will be successful, but in the case of this version, not all of the heroes will survive the encounter.

While I have mentioned there was great acting, I'm not going to single out the actors today.

I would like to take  a moment to acknowledge Elmer Bernstein for his contribution to the film with the Theme for the Magnificent Seven.  Even if you don't think you know it...

You know it.

The movies that he was the composer for, read like a who's who of awesome movies from the 50s-70s.  Yes, he was in charge of The Great Escape as well... he plays well with Sturges.


So to sum this one up...

This is the movie for people that don't like Westerns...have never seen a Western... or wouldn't know a good movie if it him them in the butt.

If they don't walk away from this one going..."that was kinda cool..."

Then there is no hope for them.

: )