Undoutedly one of the great movies of all time.

Among the greates of all time both as a movie and as a western. The cast is excellent even the young Horst Bucholtz. The story is timeless the characters flawed yet admirable. A must have for every serious collector.

Great Movie, great DVD

The Magnificent Seven has been one of my favorite movies since I first saw it as a child; this DVD does honor to a great American (Japanese?) Western by providing an excellent transfer of both the audio and visual components to the disk (something often botched in other DVDs of older films). Another pleasant surprise was the quality of the special features, often lacking or limited to trailers for the film. I particularly liked the documentary of the making of the film. It was loaded with fascinating details of the obstacles to bringing the film to life, as well as the rivalry among the stars of the film. All in all, well worth the money paid. If you've seen the "7" this is a way to enjoy it again; if you haven't seen it, then this is the next best thing to sitting in a darkened theater.

A Classic Western...

1960's "The Magnificent Seven" successfully translates the plot of a Japanese Samuari movie to the setting of the American West. John Sturgis directs a stellar cast in an action thriller about seven gunmen who are hired by the people of a small Mexican village to defend them from a gang of bandits.

Yul Brynner plays the leader of the Seven, a steely-eyed gunfighter with surprising heart and compassion. He is nicely backed by Steve McQueen as a down-on-his-luck gambler looking for action. Charles Bronson is a Mexican-Irish gunsel who has a soft spot for the children of the village. James Coburn is pitch-perfect as a taciturn knife-fighter. Robert Vaughn struggles in a complicted portrayal of a gunfighter who has lost his nerve. Veteran actor Brad Nelson almost disappears in a cast full of rising actors as an older gunman looking for a payday. Horst Buchholz steals his scenes a young and inexperienced wanna-be. Eli Wallach is superb as the evil, wise-cracking bandito chief.

The film follows a straight-forward storyline. Yul Brynner's character accepts the job of protecting the village, then scrounges up six gunmen, each of whom take the job for his own reasons. The Seven proceed to face down the banditos in their initial confrontation at the village. When the tables are turned, the Seven are given the opportunity to walk away from a final confrontation between the vengeful banditios and the village. Instead, they elect to fight it out in a duel to the death that most will not survive.

"The Magnficent Seven" is magnificant entertainment, easily ranking with the best of the Western genre. A clean and classic storyline coupled with Academy-Award-nominated theme music and a cast of young actors then on the verge of their best work continues to hold up well nearly half a century on.