Guns of the Magnificent Seven
Encyclopedia
Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) is a Zapata Western and the second sequel to the 1960 western
film, The Magnificent Seven
(itself based on Akira Kurosawa
's Seven Samurai).
It was directed by Paul Wendkos
and stars George Kennedy
as Chris Adams, the character Yul Brynner
portrayed in the first two films. The additions to the cast to make up the "new" seven are Monte Markham
, Bernie Casey
(in his film debut), James Whitmore
, Reni Santoni
, Joe Don Baker
and Scott Thomas. Each have their quirks and baggage. They band together to help free a Mexican revolutionary (Fernando Rey
) and help fight the oppression of sadistic militarist Diego played by Michael Ansara
. Elmer Bernstein
once again provides the music. It was filmed in Spain as was the previous Return of the Seven
.
Chris agrees to mount a rescue of Quintero and uses $500 of Max's money to recruit five highly-trained combatants: Keno, the horsethief and hand-to-hand combat expert (whom Chris saved from hanging); Cassie, a brawny but intelligent former slave, who can handle dynamite; the one-armed, sideshow sharp-shootist Slater; a tubercular wrangler called 'P. J.'; and Levi Morgan: an aging family man who is doubtful of his worth, despite his incredible knife-throwing skills.
En route to Mexico, the motley band of Americans becomes less mercenary when they observe the brutal treatment of the peasants. And their journey is also marked by encounters with a political prisoner's little boy - Emiliano Zapata
- and a pretty peasant girl, Tina, who falls in love with P.J.. When Lobero learns that Max did not buy guns with the $600, he refuses to allow his men to take part in Quintero's rescue. Realizing that he needs support, Chris frees a prison gang that includes Zapata's father and trains them in military tactics.
Despite their superior fighting skills and strategy, Chris's men are outnumbered and their valiant effort to free Quintero appears doomed. But, at the last moment, 50 of Lobero's bandits, having slain their leader for his lack of patriotism, thunder onto the prison grounds and turn the tide of battle. Of the original seven, only Chris, Max and Levi survive. And before riding home, Chris and Levi elect to donate the $600 to the peasants' cause.
First, there isn't as much nobility amongst the shootists as in the original. Several of them are more flawed than the original cast. And in Guns, the gunmen have more personal incentive to fight, as each is offered $100 (instead of $20 in the original).
There are a greater variety of gunmen than in The Magnificent Seven, with an African-American, 2 disabled, and an elderly shootist joining the traditionally-native patriot employer's cause. This variety also threatens to destroy the rescue operation a couple of times, as ex-Confederate Slater's racism enrages Cassie to the point of almost beating him.
In spite of their differences, greater bonding develops between the gunmen, than the gunmen with the peasants. Chris/Keno and Cassie/Slater, for example. Outside of strategy and tactics sessions, only Levi and P.J. personally interact with some of the peasants.
And the gunmen face a more formidable foe in well-trained Mexican federal troops; and therefore must enlist the help of not only the peasants in freeing Quintero, but some of the bandits as well.
... Chris Adams
James Whitmore
... Levi Morgan
Monte Markham
... Keno
Reni Santoni
... Maximiliano "Max" O'Leary
Bernie Casey
... Cassie
Scott Thomas
... P. J.
Joe Don Baker
... Slater
Tony Davis ... Emilio Zapata
Michael Ansara
... Colonel Diego
Frank Silvera
... Lobero
Wende Wagner
... Tina
Sancho Gracia
... Miguel
Luis Rivera ... Lieutenant Prensa
George Rigaud
... Gabriel
Fernando Rey
... Quintero
in 1966, and followed by The Magnificent Seven Ride in 1972. Producer Walter Mirisch
felt that in the unpredictiable market of filmgoers, there was safety in familiar material. Yul Brynner
did not want to return to the role of Chris; the role taken by the experienced George Kennedy then in a height of popularity after winning his Academy Award in Cool Hand Luke
. Mirisch surrounded Kennedy with a strong cast, Elmer Bernstein's original score and had his contract director Paul Wendkos direct. The producer of the film Vincent M. Fennelly had worked with Mirisch at Monogram and had produced the Clint Eastwood
Western TV series Rawhide
. The film did very well at the international box office.
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
film, The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven
The Magnificent Seven is an American Western film directed by John Sturges, and released in 1960. It is a fictional tale of a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding Mexican bandits...
(itself based on Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
's Seven Samurai).
It was directed by Paul Wendkos
Paul Wendkos
Paul Wendkos was an American television and film director....
and stars George Kennedy
George Kennedy
George Harris Kennedy, Jr. is an American actor who has appeared in over 200 film and television productions. He is perhaps most familiar as the convict Dragline in Cool Hand Luke , airline troubleshooter Joe Patroni in the Airport series of disaster movies from the 1970s and...
as Chris Adams, the character Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner was a Russian-born actor of stage and film. He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film version; he also played the role more than 4,500 times on...
portrayed in the first two films. The additions to the cast to make up the "new" seven are Monte Markham
Monte Markham
Monte Markham is an American actor. During his career, Markham has appeared in film, in television, and on Broadway.Markham was born in Manatee County, Florida, the son of Millie Content and Jesse Edward Markham, Sr., who was a merchant.Of his television roles, Markham is perhaps most famous for...
, Bernie Casey
Bernie Casey
Bernard Terry "Bernie" Casey is a professional actor who initially had a career as an interscholastic, intercollegiate and professional football player. Casey was also a record-breaking track and field athlete for Bowling Green State University...
(in his film debut), James Whitmore
James Whitmore
James Allen Whitmore, Jr. was an American film and stage actor.-Early life:Born in White Plains, New York, to Florence Belle and James Allen Whitmore, Sr., a park commission official, Whitmore attended Amherst Central High School in Snyder, New York, before graduating from The Choate School in...
, Reni Santoni
Reni Santoni
Reni Santoni is an American film, television and voice actor.Santoni was born in New York City of French and Spanish descent.He began his career in off-Broadway theatre...
, Joe Don Baker
Joe Don Baker
Joe Don Baker is an American film actor, perhaps best known for his roles as a Mafia hitman in Charley Varrick, deputy sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III in Final Justice, real-life Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser in Walking Tall, brute force with a badge detective Mitchell in Mitchell, James...
and Scott Thomas. Each have their quirks and baggage. They band together to help free a Mexican revolutionary (Fernando Rey
Fernando Rey
Fernando Casado Arambillet , best known as Fernando Rey, was a Spanish film, theatre, and TV actor, who worked in both Europe and the United States...
) and help fight the oppression of sadistic militarist Diego played by Michael Ansara
Michael Ansara
Michael Ansara is a Syrian-born American stage, screen, and voice actor best known for his portrayal of Cochise in the American television series Broken Arrow, Kane in the 1979-81 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and Commander Kang on three different Star Trek TV series.- Early life and...
. Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein
Elmer Bernstein was an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career which spanned fifty years, he composed music for hundreds of film and television productions...
once again provides the music. It was filmed in Spain as was the previous Return of the Seven
Return of the Seven
Return of the Seven , is the first sequel to the 1960 western, The Magnificent Seven. Made in 1966, Yul Brynner is the sole returning cast member from the first film, portraying Chris Adams....
.
Plot Synopsis
In late 19th-century Mexico, Federales capture Quintero, the revolutionary who attempts to rally the many disorganized groups opposing the dictatorship of President Díaz. Before going to prison, Quintero gives his lieutenant, Maximiliano O'Leary, $600 with which to continue the cause. Bandit chief Carlos Lobero demands that the money be used for guns and ammunition, but Max instead crosses the border in search of Chris Adams: a legendary, but laconic, American gunman. Max finally finds Chris, after witnessing him free a man from a rigged trial: first, using his wits; and finally, the famed hair-trigger artistry of his weapons.Chris agrees to mount a rescue of Quintero and uses $500 of Max's money to recruit five highly-trained combatants: Keno, the horsethief and hand-to-hand combat expert (whom Chris saved from hanging); Cassie, a brawny but intelligent former slave, who can handle dynamite; the one-armed, sideshow sharp-shootist Slater; a tubercular wrangler called 'P. J.'; and Levi Morgan: an aging family man who is doubtful of his worth, despite his incredible knife-throwing skills.
En route to Mexico, the motley band of Americans becomes less mercenary when they observe the brutal treatment of the peasants. And their journey is also marked by encounters with a political prisoner's little boy - Emiliano Zapata
Emiliano Zapata
Emiliano Zapata Salazar was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution, which broke out in 1910, and which was initially directed against the president Porfirio Díaz. He formed and commanded an important revolutionary force, the Liberation Army of the South, during the Mexican Revolution...
- and a pretty peasant girl, Tina, who falls in love with P.J.. When Lobero learns that Max did not buy guns with the $600, he refuses to allow his men to take part in Quintero's rescue. Realizing that he needs support, Chris frees a prison gang that includes Zapata's father and trains them in military tactics.
Despite their superior fighting skills and strategy, Chris's men are outnumbered and their valiant effort to free Quintero appears doomed. But, at the last moment, 50 of Lobero's bandits, having slain their leader for his lack of patriotism, thunder onto the prison grounds and turn the tide of battle. Of the original seven, only Chris, Max and Levi survive. And before riding home, Chris and Levi elect to donate the $600 to the peasants' cause.
Differences from The Magnificent Seven
Guns of the Magnificent Seven differs from The Magnificent Seven in several key ways.First, there isn't as much nobility amongst the shootists as in the original. Several of them are more flawed than the original cast. And in Guns, the gunmen have more personal incentive to fight, as each is offered $100 (instead of $20 in the original).
There are a greater variety of gunmen than in The Magnificent Seven, with an African-American, 2 disabled, and an elderly shootist joining the traditionally-native patriot employer's cause. This variety also threatens to destroy the rescue operation a couple of times, as ex-Confederate Slater's racism enrages Cassie to the point of almost beating him.
In spite of their differences, greater bonding develops between the gunmen, than the gunmen with the peasants. Chris/Keno and Cassie/Slater, for example. Outside of strategy and tactics sessions, only Levi and P.J. personally interact with some of the peasants.
And the gunmen face a more formidable foe in well-trained Mexican federal troops; and therefore must enlist the help of not only the peasants in freeing Quintero, but some of the bandits as well.
Cast
George KennedyGeorge Kennedy
George Harris Kennedy, Jr. is an American actor who has appeared in over 200 film and television productions. He is perhaps most familiar as the convict Dragline in Cool Hand Luke , airline troubleshooter Joe Patroni in the Airport series of disaster movies from the 1970s and...
... Chris Adams
James Whitmore
James Whitmore
James Allen Whitmore, Jr. was an American film and stage actor.-Early life:Born in White Plains, New York, to Florence Belle and James Allen Whitmore, Sr., a park commission official, Whitmore attended Amherst Central High School in Snyder, New York, before graduating from The Choate School in...
... Levi Morgan
Monte Markham
Monte Markham
Monte Markham is an American actor. During his career, Markham has appeared in film, in television, and on Broadway.Markham was born in Manatee County, Florida, the son of Millie Content and Jesse Edward Markham, Sr., who was a merchant.Of his television roles, Markham is perhaps most famous for...
... Keno
Reni Santoni
Reni Santoni
Reni Santoni is an American film, television and voice actor.Santoni was born in New York City of French and Spanish descent.He began his career in off-Broadway theatre...
... Maximiliano "Max" O'Leary
Bernie Casey
Bernie Casey
Bernard Terry "Bernie" Casey is a professional actor who initially had a career as an interscholastic, intercollegiate and professional football player. Casey was also a record-breaking track and field athlete for Bowling Green State University...
... Cassie
Scott Thomas
Scott Thomas
Scott Thomas may refer to:*Scott Thomas , American district attorney*Scott Thomas , ice hockey player in the NHL*Scott Thomas , English football player...
... P. J.
Joe Don Baker
Joe Don Baker
Joe Don Baker is an American film actor, perhaps best known for his roles as a Mafia hitman in Charley Varrick, deputy sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III in Final Justice, real-life Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser in Walking Tall, brute force with a badge detective Mitchell in Mitchell, James...
... Slater
Tony Davis ... Emilio Zapata
Michael Ansara
Michael Ansara
Michael Ansara is a Syrian-born American stage, screen, and voice actor best known for his portrayal of Cochise in the American television series Broken Arrow, Kane in the 1979-81 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and Commander Kang on three different Star Trek TV series.- Early life and...
... Colonel Diego
Frank Silvera
Frank Silvera
Frank Alvin Silvera was an American actor and theatrical director.-Career:Silvera was born in Kingston, Jamaica to a Spanish Jewish father and Jamaican mother. His family later emigrated to the United States, settling in Boston where Silvera attended English High School and Northeastern Law School...
... Lobero
Wende Wagner
Wende Wagner
Wende Wagner, also known as Wendy Wagner was an actress famed for her roles in The Green Hornet and Rio Conchos.-Biography:Born to a career U.S. Navy officer and swimming and diving coach father Wende Wagner, also known as Wendy Wagner (December 6, 1941 February 26, 1997) was an actress famed for...
... Tina
Sancho Gracia
Sancho Gracia
Sancho Gracia is a Spanish motion picture and television actor.He made his acting debut in France in the 1963 film L'Autre femme opposite Annie Girardot. Since then he has appeared in more than eighty motion pictures including several Hollywood productions during the 1970s and in 1999's Outlaw...
... Miguel
Luis Rivera ... Lieutenant Prensa
George Rigaud
George Rigaud
George Rigaud was an Argentine film actor. He appeared in 194 films between 1932 and 1981.He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and was killed in a road accident in Madrid, Spain.-Selected filmography:...
... Gabriel
Fernando Rey
Fernando Rey
Fernando Casado Arambillet , best known as Fernando Rey, was a Spanish film, theatre, and TV actor, who worked in both Europe and the United States...
... Quintero
Production
This film was preceded by Return of the SevenReturn of the Seven
Return of the Seven , is the first sequel to the 1960 western, The Magnificent Seven. Made in 1966, Yul Brynner is the sole returning cast member from the first film, portraying Chris Adams....
in 1966, and followed by The Magnificent Seven Ride in 1972. Producer Walter Mirisch
Walter Mirisch
Walter Mortimer Mirisch is an American film producer. In his long and successful motion picture career, Walter Mirisch has produced some of the industry’s finest and most memorable films...
felt that in the unpredictiable market of filmgoers, there was safety in familiar material. Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner was a Russian-born actor of stage and film. He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film version; he also played the role more than 4,500 times on...
did not want to return to the role of Chris; the role taken by the experienced George Kennedy then in a height of popularity after winning his Academy Award in Cool Hand Luke
Cool Hand Luke
Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starring Paul Newman. The screenplay was adapted by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson from Pearce's 1965 novel of the same name. The film features George Kennedy, Strother Martin, J.D...
. Mirisch surrounded Kennedy with a strong cast, Elmer Bernstein's original score and had his contract director Paul Wendkos direct. The producer of the film Vincent M. Fennelly had worked with Mirisch at Monogram and had produced the Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
Western TV series Rawhide
Rawhide (TV series)
Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
. The film did very well at the international box office.