Return of the Seven

Day 248 - 9/5/09 - Movie #245

BEFORE: God bless Turner Classic Movies! Really, I mean it, and I don't even like to say "God bless you" when someone sneezes. May the Creator's countenance shine favorably on those who program TCM. The same week I planned to watch "The Magnificent Seven", TCM ran all three of its sequels, back-to-back. And each film is relatively short, so I can do two-a-days and catch up. Yul Brynner returns as Chris Adams, but Steve McQueen's Vin and Horst Buchholz's Chico were recast. Not to spoil the ending of the first film, but they have to recruit some more members...

THE PLOT: When a bandit leader wants to build a church in memory of his dead sons, he raids three Mexican villages and kidnaps all the men for labor. Chris recruits four others (a playboy, an avenger, a highwayman and an orphan) to reform the Seven, once again defending farmers from their oppressors.

AFTER: And thank God for the IMDB, too. It was driving me crazy trying to figure out where I'd seen Warren Oates, who played Colbee. I recognized the shape of his face, and was picturing him older, and wearing an army uniform. I was on the right track - 15 years later, he played Sgt. Hulka in "Stripes".

They were obviously trying to re-create the magic of the original, but they may have stuck too close to the original story - it's almost like a re-make rather than a sequel. Same village to rescue from Mexican bandits - how many times does this village need to be saved, and is it really worth it?

And there's not as much time spent on exposition, so no peek into the gunslinger mentality or lifestyle this time...you could say that a better sequel (of sorts) to "The Magnificent Seven" would be "The Great Escape", which had the same director, John Sturges, and three of its stars - Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Charles Bronson.

RATING: 5 out of 10 Winchester rifles