The theme was an earworm, that lived in the brain for days, and was never forgotten.
So I decided to watch the remake, mainly to hear that theme again, but also to see what might have happened in the meantime.
The original was set in Mexico. A small village is attacked by a local bandit and his gang, and the villagers hire seven men to defend them and put the thug and his comrades into the ground.
It had an all-star cast, led by Yul Byrnner, the man who made baldness sexy.
There was Steve McQueen, and Horst Buchholz, and Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, and James Coburn. And, indeed, they were magnificent, in a rough kind of way. It was the horse opera that was to be the model and guide for a whole raft of horse operas after that....
... including the remake, made in 2016
That was the one I watched, out of pure curiosity. Quite apart, of course, from the music, which I found strangely lacking.
This one also has an all-star cast.
- Denzel Washington as Sam Chisholm, a bounty hunter from Kansas.
- Chris Pratt as Joshua Faraday, a drifter and trick-shooter.
- Ethan Hawke as Goodnight Robicheaux, a Cajun former Confederate sharpshooter.
- Vincent D'Onofrio as Jack Horne, a deeply religious mountain man and hunter.
- Byung-hun Lee as Billy Rocks, a knife-wielding Chinaman.
- Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Vasquez, a Mexican outlaw and gunslinger.
- Martin Sensmeier as Red Harvest, a Comanche warrior.
Please note there is only one Mexican character in it. It is also set in the frontier United States, not Mexico. In fact, the influence of modern politics was quite fascinating.
There was the overriding image of the typical American cowboy -- who was, in fact, Mexican, not United States American. That is why cowboy words -- lassoo, rodeo, honcho -- are Spanish. However, it is this rough kind of frontier hero, hard on the outside, tough on the inside, and yet with a tender heart somewhere in the middle, that is the stereotype lauded by a certain MAGA crowd.
This was not something I remembered from the original film.
The characters were different, too -- though one, played by Ethan Hawke, did suffer from same nightmares of past killings that Robert Vaughn did in the first version. The Comanche warrier was a novelty, particularly as he was on the side of the cowboys, in a contrast to those many, many cowboy vs. Indian films. And a Chinese fellow, too. Another novelty (actually played by a Korean). Were the writers and producers trying to make a point?
The plot has a much more complicated message than simple good vs. evil. It is rabid capitalism vs. hardworking ordinary folks.
These folks are trying to establish a community of godfearing villagers on land that is unfortunately supposed to be goldbearing, when the capitalist arrives.
The capitalist, played with enthusiasm by Peter Sarsgaard, is Bartholmew Bogue. Naturally, he wants the land, and is happy to slaughter all the villagers to get it. In his estimation, it is only natural. As he says, 'If God did not want them sheared, why did he create sheep?' And, being rich already, he has an army at his command, the so-called Blackstone Rangers.
Well, the magnificent seven kill off the first 22 rangers they find in the village (the bodycount is really impressive), and the message is sent to Bogue, who gives them seven days to give up and give in, before his full army arrives to wipe all opposition off the ore-bearing earth that he wants so much.
It's classic stuff, in the mode of 'High Noon.' Preparations are made, and the magnificent seven, plus willing (though largely incapable) villagers, take their positions.
The climax is much as one would expect, with the interesting addition of a Gatling gun, which threatens for a while to put the whole story out of balance. But Chris Pratt, as Joshua Faraday, destroys the gun and restores the balance, in what are the best few minutes of the movie, by far. Indeed, Chris Pratt was the stand-out actor. He really jumped off the screen. The others seemed less enthusiastic.
All in all, I was not surprised this remake got mixed reviews. "Mildly diverting," ran one, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
But the horses did really well.
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