The Magnificent Seven is a 1960 American Western film directed by John Sturges (Bad Day at Black Rock, The Great Escape). The film is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and is a Western version of that movie. John Sturges’ film is also known for launching the careers of several iconic and legendary Hollywood actors including Steve McQueen and Robert Vaughn !
The story has seven American gunfighters that come to the aid of the townsfolk at a small Mexican village that are being robbed, ganged up on, and beaten badly by some bandits led by Calvera (Eli Wallach, How the West Was Won, The Hunter). The problem is that Calvera has an army behind him, while there are just seven gunfighters to challenge him. They are greatly outnumbered and outgunned but are still determined to bring him down!
The seven gunfighters are Chris Adams (Yul Brynner, Westworld, The King and I), Bernardo O’Reilly (Charles Bronson, Death Wish, Murphy’s Law) Vin Tanner( Steve McQueen, The Blob, The Towering Inferno) Lee (Robert Vaughn ,Teenage Cavemen, Superman III) Henry Luck (Brad Dexter, Violent Saturday, House of Bamboo) Chico(Horst Buccholz, Dead of Night, The Return of Captain Nemo) and Britt (James Coburn, Hell is for Heroes, The Great Escape).
The Magnificent Seven is one of the greatest Westerns in our cinematic history as many viewers would say. In addition to the all-star cast, the film is known for the great iconic musical score by Elmer Bernstein (The Ten Commandments, Robot Monster) with the main theme being one of the most recognizable tunes you will hear in film! The excellent cinematography was shot by Oscar Award Winner Charles Lang (Charade, Some Like it Hot, A Farewell to Arms).
Shout Factory gives The Magnificent Seven a UHD/ Blu-ray combination release advertised as a “A NEW 2022 Restoration And Color Grade Using An Existing 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative” for both the Blu-ray and UHD discs. On the UHD, the 3840 x 2160 image looks spectacular overall, with maybe the credit sequence that tended to be a bit dark but nothing too serious. The Dolby Vision HDR-10 compatible certainly shows lots of improvements and is easily an upgrade over the Blu-ray release! The image quality looks as clean and stable as never before. Colors, especially reds do look richer and bolder than the Blu-ray. Exterior shots of the scenery under blue skies have plenty of texturing with plenty of details. Everything ranging from hills, trees, the ground, and buildings shown in the film have never looked this clear or detailed. Film grain is present throughout the presentation. Flesh tones look accurate as well, with close-ups of the actors’ faces also showing much in the way of detail. The Magnificent Seven UHD looks magnificent, indeed!
Shout’s UHD has three audio options, English DTS-HD Master Audio Surround 2.0 mono, a DTS-HD Master Audio stereo, plus a 5.1 audio track are all part this package. I toggled all three soundtracks and the stereo option came in the most robust but they all sounded satisfactory, generally speaking. Dialogue, music gun shots and action sounds were clear and balanced on all the audio soundtracks, with gunshots coming in the most aggressive, particularly when using the stereo track. I didn’t detect any drop-offs, cracking or other audio issues for any of the options. English SDH subtitles are offered for this release.
Extras have been ported over from the previous Blu-ray releases of The Magnificent Seven which includes the commentary track with James Coburn, Eli Wallach, Producer Walter Mirisch, And Assistant Director Robert Relyea. The commentary track by Film Historian Sir Christopher Frayling from the previous offerings is also part of this package. Both tracks are on the UHD and Blu-ray discs.
On the Blu-ray disc, the Guns For Hire: The Making Of The Magnificent Seven extra from the MGM Blu-ray has been ported over along with other legacy supplements Elmer Bernstein And The Magnificent Seven
, Sir Christopher Frayling on The Magnificent Seven, The Linen Book: Lost Images From The Magnificent Seven. If you have owned the MGM Blu-ray, you most likely know what these supplements consist of. They are all wonderful extras which focus on the behind-the-scenes and other aspects of the film. Rounding out the bonus materials are Original Theatrical Trailers which runs about five minutes and a Still Gallery that is a four-minute slide show.
This UHD/ Blu-ray release of The Magnificent Seven to me is the best one out there and the holy grail! The image quality has never looked better, with three audio options to choose from and all the supplements from the previous Blu-ray releases make this an awesome package that is highly recommended!
The Magnificent Seven
Director – John Sturges
Cast- Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach
Country of Origin- USA
Number of Discs – 2
Distributor – Shout Factory
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –2/25/2023