Classic Western: The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven (1960)
directed by John Sturges
starring Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Horst Buchholz, Brad Dexter

Everybody likes to see a bully get his, especially when the underdogs deliver the comeuppance themselves.

The story of The Magnificent Seven is an enduring one, which is no doubt why it keeps getting remade. Itself cribbed from Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Seven Samurai, this film gets another version this September 23 by director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Italian Job) with Denzel Washington in the Yul Brynner role.



As a fan of old movies, I find it disheartening whenever a studio decides to "update" a film classic because inevitably they tinker with the script's best elements and make a mess of things. Here's hoping that Fuqua doesn't add too many extraneous details or an unnecessary love interest.

SYNOPSIS & SPOILERS

When a village of poor Mexican farmers sees its crops stolen and its women threatened for the umpteenth time by sneering bandit Calvera (Eli Wallach) and his crew of roaming outlaws, they decide they have no choice but to fight for their survival. They hire on a group of American mercenaries, led by Yul Brynner (with his usual accent, though this time he's supposed to be a Creole), to get them guns and train them in tactical warfare to ward off the bully next time he shows. Among the group of gunfighters are old hands Charles Bronson and Steve McQueen, long and lean James Coburn, cardsharp smoothie Robert Vaughn, reliable Brad Dexter and firebrand youngblood Horst Buchholz.

We're supposed to believe that Brynner and his cohorts are interested in fairness and justice, not just money; in an early scene Brynner and newly acquainted pal McQueen take a dare to drive the hearse carrying a dead Indian to the all-white town cemetery for a proper burial, something the white residents of the town try to prevent. The bigots get winged by a few bullets from the heroes in the process.

Once Brynner gathers up his posse, they travel across the border to the town and start weighing their options. Another indication of the group's "righteousness" is when the villagers gather up their meager resources to fete the mercenaries with a big feast. The men learn that most of the town's children are hungry and decide to share their meal. Look, gunslingers have hearts too!

Calvera shows his sweaty face again with 40 of his men and battles The Seven head on; as a result Calvera's crew gets their numbers significantly thinned out. Despite this early victory for the villagers, things turn more deadly when Calvera returns and takes over ("If God didn't want them sheared, he wouldn't have made them sheep" says Calvera of the villagers). This prompts one last shootout with the gunslingers that eventually kills Calvera, who can't quite seem to believe he's been bested by this crew and asks Brynner "why did you come here?" before kicking the bucket. Victory, yes, but the shootout has also left four of The Seven dead in the streets.

The Magnificent Seven is about good versus evil.

It's about the power of revenge -- but also what it costs to achieve.

It's also about male camaraderie; brotherhood in the service of a noble cause. This is a theme that has driven many a war film, not to mention dozens of "buddy" flicks.

And with its cast of tough guys, who have plenty of "cool" and swagger to spare, The Magnificant Seven still serves as a model of what the ultimate Man's Man is supposed to be: cool under fire; full of heart; ready and able to do the right thing; protector of women, children, and the downtrodden; but cold-blooded when necessary.

Unfortunately, the film bears the stamp of the "white savior" movie plot so prevalent throughout film history, though "The Magnificent Seven" tries hard to preach an equality-type message. Nevertheless, the Mexican villagers go hat in hand to the Americans for help, and find themselves learning how to stand up for themselves from the white Yankees.

Women do appear in the film, but they have no real agency. The village hides its women in the forest to protect them against the marauders until Buchholz smokes one out and forces her to share information. But in this film the men have no time for romance, and that's one of the things I like about it. Rather a film with no part for women, than a film that gets sticky with unnecessary liaisons or that shows off the rampant sexism pervasive both at the time the story was set and the time it was filmed.

A story of persistence and courage in the face of danger never goes out of style. Combined with great widescreen cinematography and a taut soundtrack, The Magnificent Seven is a magnificent western classic.

12 Years A Slave (2013)

Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Brad Pitt

I did not see 12 Years a Slave when first released because life just got in the way. I usually jump on flicks during opening weekend, but I just couldn't get to the theater. It was not a case of not wanting to see it -- I knew I HAD to see it. Because I didn't view it right away, my writing about it also got lost in the holiday shuffle. But I was actually shocked to hear people in my acquaintance declaring that they would never see it, because they did not want to become angry. (Ditto on The Butler, which I also recommend.) At some point the refusal to view the film and the potential threat -- "don't make me angry!" -- among folks approached competitive proportions, with refuseniks seeking some kind of badge of honor for who can harbor the most racial outrage.

On one level, I understand that seeing a visual interpretation of the horrors and injustice our ancestors endured (or perpetrated) during slavery is difficult to deal with. There is no question that the institution of slavery and subsequent years of racial bigotry and discrimination are all things to be furious about. But on another level, I think the choice not to see 12 Years A Slave is shortsighted, a bit immature, and ultimately self-defeating.

This movie is powerful, spellbinding, heartbreaking, and horrifying, but it is also beautifully shot and beautifully told. It is about one man's victory. Yes. Solomon Northup is born free, and after enduring 12 brutal years in slavery, is returned to freedom. He survives to tell the tale, to bear public witness to the raw day-to-day realities and practices of a system that many whites -- and blacks -- would like to see swept under the rug and forgotten. At a time when it was illegal for slaves to read or write, Solomon -- like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Olaudah Equiano and others -- created a slave narrative (published in 1853) that was a powerful tool in the swelling American abolitionist movement leading up to the Civil War. Yes, he left behind hundreds of thousands of fellow slaves when he was rescued by a white attorney of his acquaintance, but he could have returned to his old life and never sought to share what he saw through his best-selling book.

12 Years A Slave the movie is affecting, because the "peculiar institution" of slavery is made all the more chilling and dehumanizing seen through the eyes of Solomon, a freeborn, educated man of color who had a family, a home, and career. While the southern states brutalized Africans in servitude, Solomon's insulated life in upstate New York is not touched by the experience of slavery until he himself is cruelly kidnapped by unscrupulous slave traders and shipped off to Louisiana. The film is also powerful in the way it contrasts the debauchery and inhumanity of slavery with the sheer beauty of a young country. It's that irony that further shakes us: this happened in the "O beautiful for spacious skies" America, the America of liberty, of rolling green hills and rich foliage, gorgeous sunsets, mighty rivers, idyllic glens, soaring flocks of birds and the sweet night music of frogs and insects -- continually sullied by human atrocities. Amid so much sylvan beauty, there is blood on the leaves.

As such, 12 Years A Slave does not shrink away from the material. (Armond White of CityPages called it "torture porn.") There are insults, lies, taunts, vicious whippings, bloody beatings, violent rapes, betrayals, the stripping away of family units, clothing, and all semblance of dignity or humanity. There is near-starvation, sleep deprivation, back breaking labor, amd the loss of hope. These towering injustices have been depicted on screen many times before, but perhaps not in such agonizing detail; Ejiofor's expressive eyes and dignified presence drive home his disgust, dismay, and despair. Lupita Nyong'o's portrayal of a young woman who bears the brunt of Missy's ire and Massa's desire will tear your heart out. At the same time, it's not a perfect film, nor can it begin to approach what slavery must really have been like.

Yes, all of this is tough going. But you must see it. It is a measure of truth. One version of what indeed happened to our country. If we refuse to look because it disquiets us, we contribute to the kind of cultural amnesia that creates a climate for these atrocities to happen again. We contribute to a national sleep of collective ignorance from which some factions hope we never wake.

As to anger: Get angry. Fine. Art is supposed to evoke emotion. But we are no longer children who cannot control our emotional responses, we are thinking adults. We can talk about our history. We can channel our righteous anger into good works, into fighting for the continued rights of oppressed peoples, and into crusades to free people who are enslaved everywhere.

Further, we must support artists of color like director Steve McQueen, whose commitment to bringing this film to the screen is an act of courage as well as creativity. The actors -- both black and white -- must be applauded for their daring and fortitude. If we don't support films like 12 Years A Slave, which keep our stories alive, they won't get made.

Finally, I don't understand how 12 Years A Slave -- a finely crafted film of historical significance in all senses of the phrase -- makes people angry, while a whole series of films where a black man dons a wig and a dress, waves a gun, and drops ghetto malapropisms that keep harmful stereotypes alive and well doesn't make anybody remotely pissed. (Not mad at brother Perry, who has provided creative jobs for a whole bunch of people.) Let's keep things in proper perspective.

As others have noted: Some of our ancestors survived way more than 12 years in slavery; you can surely survive 120 minutes of a film depiction.

If you missed your chance to see 12 Years in theaters, it will be available soon enough on DVD. Please open your eyes to it.