I Review "The Magnificent Seven"

I recently watched the movie "The Magnificent Seven." To be honest, i've seen better westerns, but it did touch on some interesting topics. If you have't heard of the movie before, its about seven cowboys who get together to save a farming village from the evil cowboy Calvera. Pretty derivative if you ask me, but thats besides the point. Noticeable actors are Eli Wallach as Calvera and Steve Mcqueen as Vin, one of the Cowboys.

Original poster from 1960

This Movie has a lot to do with power imbalances. Calvera comes into the farmers town every once in a while to restock on goods for his band of thieves and outlaws. the farmers have had enough but there is nothing that they can really do, all the Outlaws have guns and they dont. Power imbalance, makes sense, like I said before, 'good vs. evil' very predictable type of movie. The  actual "Magnificent Seven" come in soon after, when the farmers find Vin and Chris and ask them to save them from Calvera. Vin and Chris start assembling the rest of their team from all over, I got lost here, It didn't make much sense what they were doing, running around the country running into sharpshooters who all seemed to agree to put their life on the line for a quick buck.

Obviously, there are Major power imbalances between the Farmers and Calvera over guns. But there also seem to be Power Imbalances between the mag 7 and the farmers. "They are afraid of everyone and everything, rain, and no rain, summer too hot, winter too cold" said one of the Head farmers at one point, hes right, these farmers are scared of Calvera and with good reason. But between the Farmers and theMag 7? it seems that they are intimidated by the skill and might of the cowboys, but at the very least they should have been more respectful than frightful thats all. going even deeper, there seems to be power imbalance between Chico, a Mexican gunslinger on the Mag, and some of the more experienced gunners. Although this is less prominent in the movie and fades by the end, i still noticed it and was a nice touch to the plot.

Even though this movie is old, I felt like it had low production value, sure maybe my standards have changed from those of the 1960's. But as a person reviewing this in and for people in 2011, you'll see some problems, the quality is grainy and the audio is too. but hey, maybe your into that old movie feel.

In my opinion, cowboy movies are always better when you have a lone man, fighting for whatever (family, money, fame etc.) thats where this movie goes wrong, all these characters are hard to follow and makes for a near un-followable plot line. I Wouldn't really recommend this movie to anyone, just because of the obscurity of it. I guess if you are looking for a different kind of western or your an Eli Wallach fan, check it out, other than that. Go see something else.