The Magnificent Seven Ride Ended The Original Series On A Dark Note

The Magnificent Seven Ride ended the western series on a surprisingly dour note. The original Magnificent Seven was a 1960 western based upon Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. This 1954 epic involved a ragtag team being assembled to defend a poor village from bandits. Of course, Kurosawa’s work proved hugely influential on international cinema, with his movie The Hidden Fortress inspiring George Lucas on Star Wars while Yojimbo formed the basis for both A Fistful Of Dollars and Walter Hill’s Last Man Standing.

The Magnificent Seven reimagined Seven Samurai in a western setting and assembled a team consisting of Yul Brynner (Westworld), Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson. The movie was enough of a hit that it became one of Hollywood’s first movies to spawn a series of sequels, with Brynner returning for the aptly titled Return of The Magnificent Seven in 1966. Guns of the Magnificent Seven continued the series in 1969 with George Kennedy taking over as Brynner’s character Chris – despite the two actors looking nothing alike. The Magnificent Seven Ride closed out the series in 1972, while a TV series arrived in 1998 starring Michael Biehn (Aliens) and Ron Perlman that ran for two seasons.

The Magnificent Seven remake starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke arrived in 2016, though it’s modest gross makes a sequel unlikely. Lee Van Cleef (Escape From New York) took over as Chris for The Magnificent Seven Ride, with his performance and the movie, in general, carrying a much darker vibe. The movie opens with Chris having turned marshal and happily married to wife Arrila. This is one reason he refuses an old friend Jim’s request for help in defending a Mexican town from bandits, with the odds being firmly stacked against them. Arrila is later kidnapped by a gang of teenagers after they rob a bank, who also wound Chris.

Chris recovers after a few days to give chase, with The Magnificent Seven Ride firmly establishing its dark tone from the off. He discovers Arrila was raped and murdered, and guns down two of the robbers in cold blood after a curt interrogation. He gives chase to Donovan the leader, which brings him to the Mexican border town his friend Jim is trying to protect. In pursuit of vengeance he again refuses to help, and the next time he comes back to the village he finds it was raided by bandits, with all the men dead and the women were beaten and raped. Chris finally decides to help after finding the bodies of Jim and Donovan, so he recruits five hardened prisoners and his biographer Noah to take the fight to the bandits in an epic showdown.

The Magnificent Seven Ride is much bleaker and dour than the previous movies. The first three entries still had high bodycounts, but their tones were more hopeful and humorous. The final movie, on the other hand, is harsh and unforgiving, and while this sets it apart from the other Magnificent Seven movies, its also not nearly as fun. Lee Van Cleef’s Chris also feels quite removed from the previous movies, though he’s still a charismatic presence.

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Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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