The Magnificent Seven: Special Edition

Quick, name 'em all: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, and...? And? Yes, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz, the weakest links in one of the great guy movies and one of the most entertaining (and quotable) westerns ever made. Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai is transplanted to a Mexican village, where farmers are being terrorized by a bandit (Eli Wallach) and his army. Enter the Seven! This widescreen DVD presentation is, well, magnificent, a vast improvement over previous VHS pan-and-scan editions. Supplemental features include audio commentary by Wallach, Coburn, and producer Walter Mirsch, as well as a new documentary about the making of the film. One story on the commentary involves director John Sturges, who after once being chided for not having copies of the scripts to his films, was said to reply, "I thought I was making movies, not history." With this film, he was making both. Highly recommended. (K. Lee Benson)[DVD Review--Jan. 24, 2006--Sony, 128 min., not rated, $24.98--Making its second appearance on DVD, 1960's The Magnificent Seven (Collector's Edition) sports an excellent transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. DVD extras include two audio commentary tracks (one by costars James Coburn and Eli Wallach, producer Walter Mirisch, and assistant director Robert Relyea—which was also included on the original DVD release; the other a new one by film historian Sir Christopher Frayling), a “Guns for Hire” 47-minute “making-of” documentary (included on the original release), “Christopher Frayling on The Magnificent Seven” (21 min.), “Elmer Bernstein and The Magnificent Seven” on composer Bernstein (15 min.), “The Linen Book: Lost Images” featurette (15 min.), photo galleries, and trailers. Bottom line: the new audio commentary and a handful of featurettes are nice, but probably not worth the upgrade if you own the earlier “special edition” of this classic—if not, pick this one up.]