A classic western in its own right.
When I decided to see this film, I did so because of its enormous popularity in European lands, and not because of its particularly good reputation. For example, I knew that my father had seen this film in a theater in Luanda, Angola, in the years when it was released in theaters (back when Angola was not an independent country). Only later, when I read a little about it, did I discover that the film is a remake, an adaptation for a western of the famous film “Seven Samurai”, directed by Akira Kurosawa, which I saw before and which I thought was a bit overrated. And of course, it's one of those pure classic US westerns, not a western-spaghetti.
The script maintains the structure of Kurosawa's film, adapted to Northern Mexico: a village of peaceful peasants, often pillaged by a band of malefactors, who hire a small group of seven honorable gunmen to help them defend themselves. However, this film corrects several of the “errors” that I pointed out to the original Japanese film: first, it is much shorter and summarizes the facts more to the essentials, giving us a less dull and dense narrative, more efficient to entertain us. To do so, the plot focuses on finding the best men for the job and, then, on the adventures to defend the village. It remains, however, a predictable film: we know that, in the end, the heroes will save the day, albeit with a few brave deaths in the final body count.
This is certainly the greatest film of Yul Brynner's career. He was already a renowned actor and had a strong influence on the casting, ending up putting together a kind of “dream team” of incredible action actors. And he himself made an impactful and remarkable performance. Steve McQueen also deserves mention, along with James Coburn, both of whom will meet again in “Great Escape”, shortly afterward. Charles Bronson and Horst Buchholz also do a very good job and make good use of the opportunity to develop their careers. In a more discreet register, Robert Vaughn and Brad Dexter help compose the seven heroes. Eli Wallach, in the role of the villain, cannot be forgotten for the quality of the work he offers us, and for the charisma that come with him.
Technically, the film does not present great values to consider. Much of what we see was standard US cinema in the 1960s: the cinematography is good, quite colorful and well lit, but not particularly notable, and the sets and costumes are relatively good, from an aesthetic point of view. The recreation of the historical era fails a little: set around 1865-1870, the film does, however, have several props and clothing that are distinctly later by several decades. They look good, but they are not exact. However, this film makes up for it with good editing, a very pleasant rhythm, good special and sound effects and an excellent soundtrack, with a pleasantly epic and heroic nature, signed by Elmer Bernstein.