Guns of the Magnificent Seven

Day 249 - 9/6/09 - Movie #246

BEFORE: The franchise must continue, even when the original star isn't available - I understand this as it applies to James Bond and Batman movies. But when Yul Brynner isn't available for another "Magnificent Seven" movie, he's replaced with...George Kennedy?

THE PLOT: A Mexican revolutionary hires an American gunslinger to organize the rescue of their leader from a brutal army prison.

AFTER: Well, at least the plot's a little different - this time the Mag Seven are working WITH the bandits...er...make that "revolutionaries", right? You say tomato...like the difference between a guerrila and a freedom fighter just depends on whether he's on your side or not.

And again we see what can be accomplished by a ragtag bunch of misfits... Our leader's been captured by the federales, the villagers are being enslaved and the crops are drying up - if only we had a ragtag bunch of misfits to fix everything!

By now, I think the Texas gunslingers are getting wise to Chris Adams' recruitment drives, since most of the previous groups of seven didn't make it back from Mexico - so the third string includes James Whitmore as an older knife-thrower (was he EVER young?) and Joe Don Baker as a one-armed carnival marksman. Oh, and the Seven finally has an affirmative-action policy, with Bernie Casey as Cassie, its first black member. Plus there's a guy who coughs a lot, so I assume he's got a terminal illness, but this point never gets addressed.

The only real connection to the previous movies is the actor Fernando Rey, who played a priest in the 2nd movie and a rebel leader in this one - and that stirring score by Elmer Bernstein, which ties the whole series together.

RATING: 5 out of 10 plates of beans