An attempt to raid his camp fails, for Calvera has gone to the village and taken over. Calvera rushes back to his base, and the Mexican (!) Chico infiltrates their camp, where he hears Calvera's plans to fight again.
The men also begin bonding with some of them: Bernardo finds himself being informally adopted by three boys who are fascinated by him, and Chico finds himself falling for the beautiful Petra (Rosenda Monteros).Ĭalvera's men return and are shocked to find not only have the villagers hired men, but that they themselves are not afraid to fight the bandits themselves. The seven ride out to the village, and begin training the farmers on the fine art of battle. Reluctantly, Adams agrees to join the other fighters himself. He rounds up six disparate men to join in this battle, ranging from the other gunfighter at the funeral, Vin Tanner (Steve McQueen) to Adams' old friend Harry Luck (Brad Dexter), master knife-fighter Britt (James Coburn), Lee (Robert Vaughn), a shaky hand recently finished with getting revenge, the half-Mexican half-Irish Bernardo O'Reilly (Charles Bronson) and the young hothead Chico (Horst Buchholz). At first, he agrees only to help recruit the fighters, and he does an admirable job of it. The villagers approach the main gunfighter for help in buying weapons. This fighter, Adams (Yul Brynner) advises them it would be cheaper to hire men than buy weapons. Nevertheless, the two gunfighters fight their way to the top of the cemetery where the man will be buried. The gunfighters face opposing fighters due to the fact the dead man is an Indian and some in town don't want some heathen on Boot Hill. Upon arrival, they encounter the sight of a pair of gunfighters taking a casket up the hill for burial. border to buy guns with which to protect themselves and fight Calvera. In desperation, the villagers decide to go to the U.S. He steals from them and adds 'protection money' to his game. In an unnamed Mexican village, the bandit Calvera (Eli Wallach) is terrorizing the citizens. The film is both faithful to the Kurosawa version and its own unique creation, a wonderful blending where all the elements work. The Magnificent Seven is, technically, a remake, but I prefer to think of it as an adaptation of Seven Samurai.
How exactly does one remake one of the greatest films ever made (in this case, the Japanese epic Seven Samurai)? The answer is simple: to not remake it. The Magnificent Seven faced an extremely uphill battle, and I don't mean the final shootout.