THE REASONER REVIEWS THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN COLLECTOR'S EDITION

1. The Magnificent Seven is adapted from Akira Kurosawa’s legendary The Seven Samurai and is to the American Western what Samurai is to the Samurai film. That ought to be enough to get Twitchers going.

2. The film is considered the last great classic American Western and has one of the great casts ever assembled for a genre film. A small Mexican village is terrorized by Eli Wallach (ooooooooooh! Badges!) and sends three members to find help. Together the men persuade Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn and Horst Bucholz to defend them against an army of 100 Frito bandido’s!

3. The extras on this bad boy include a great commentary with stars James Coburn Eli Wallach and others and a separate commentary with film historian Sir Christopher Frayling one of the best culture historians alive and Rector of The Royal College of Art in Britain. There is also a making of documentary, a featurette on Elmer Bernstein’s scoring of the film (considered one of the greatest Western scores ever) and other assorted featurettes and a photo gallery.

4. The film is directed by John Sturges whose other great films include Bad Day at Black Rock, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Old Man and The Sea, The Great Escape, Ice Station Zebra and The Eagle Has Landed.

5. Yul Brynner’s character in the film is the one he used to create his unforgettable cowboy gunslinger in Westworld, which was a direct inspiration for the part of the TX-800 in The Terminator which was the inspiration for Kee-ah-new Reeves acting style.

6. This is likely to be the definitive DVD edition of the film.

Listen to reason.

THE REASONER