Note: This page covers the film called The Magnificent Seven. For the ensemble/plot trope, see The Magnificent Seven Samurai.
Vin: I guess right about now you kinda wish you'd given your crops to Calvera, huh?
Hilario: Yes. And no. Both at the same time. Yes, when I think of what he might do. No, when I remember the feeling in my chest this morning as I saw him running away — from us. That's a feeling worth dying for. Have you ever... felt something like that?
Vin: Not for a long, long time. I, uh, I envy you.
Mexican villagers plagued by a band of bandits send a few of their number to the border to buy guns so they can defend themselves. They end up hiring seven gunmen to defend the village instead.The Magnificent Seven — a western retelling (in both senses of the term) of The Seven Samurai that has a brilliant and memorable score — has so much testosterone that a girl risks getting pregnant just by watching it. Numerous film historians call it one of the last great westerns.
The Magnificent Seven contains examples of the following tropes:
Accidental Aiming Skills: Britt kills a bandit fleeing on horseback with a single rifle shot from a moderate distance. When Chico calls it the best shot he's ever seen, Britt calls it the worst, because he had aimed for the horse.
This also subverts the trope: Britt had aimed at the horse because he wanted to take one of the bandits alive and question him about the strength of the bandit group.
Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Vin and Hilario have the page quote conversation in the middle of a firefight. The scene where Lee wakes from a nightmare and talks about losing his nerve counts, too.
Adaptation Expansion: Given that the bandits' leader is given zero characterization and five minutes of screen time in Seven Samurai, Calvera received one of these in spades.
All-Star Cast: This film has one of the coolest casts in the history of cinema: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, Brad Dexter, and Horst Buchholz play the Seven. Brynner was already a star (known for The Ten Commandments and The King and I, the latter of which won him an Oscar), and four of the others went on to become A-list stars thanks (in part) to this movie, and while Horst Bucholz didn't become an A-list star in America, he did become exceptionally popular in European cinema — which leaves poor Brad Dexter as the only member of the main cast who didn't become a big star in some way.
Don't forget Eli Wallach, who became a familiar face in many successful movies later on, including his most recognizable role in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Batman Cold Open: The film does a Western variation (escorting a dead Indian to a cemetery whilst under fire) of the Batman Cold Open from Kurosawa's original. It both establishes Chris and Vin's creds as awesome gunslingers and solidifies their respect for each other.
Bittersweet Ending: The seven killed all of the bandits, but four of the seven also died. One of the survivors gives up on adventure, while the other two ride off to a future without prospects.
The old man was right. Only the farmers won. We lost. We'll always lose.
The film lifted this directly from Seven Samurai: the seventh samurai tries hard to become a samurai and constantly boasts and showing off — before he tearfully admits that he came from a family of selfish farmers.
Call to Agriculture: Chico, in spite of explicitly stating in an earlier scene that he had no intention of settling down, does exactly this at the end.
Catapult Nightmare: Lee scrambles across the room in a panic when he awakens from a nightmare.
Eli Wallach (who portrayed the bandit leader Calvera) once remarked that if he'd have heard Elmer's music during filming, he'd have ridden his horse better.
The film plays it straight in some instances: several characters make shots on the run, shoot guns out of hands, and make otherwise improbable shots. It doesn't do this as badly as other Westerns from the same era, though.
The film averts this, too: Britt — acknowledged as one of the best gunmen of the group — takes several seconds to line up a rifle shot from a moderate distance, and he still claims to have missed his intended target (see Accidental Aiming Skills above).
My Friends... and Zoidberg: Who made up the Magnificent Seven? Six actors who became major stars — and Brad Dexter. (Horst Buchholz had a huge career in Germany.)
Noodle Incident: Vin answers the question in Evil Cannot Comprehend Good above with a story about a man he witnessed jumping buck naked into a patch of cactus. "He said it seemed like a good idea at the time."
Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Yul Brynner (Russian) and Horst Buchholz (German) both sport their natural accents; the film tries to Handwave this by making Brynner's character a Cajun and Buchholz's a Mexican.
Redemption Equals Death: Lee, who had struggled with cowardice throughout the whole movie, dies five seconds after he saves a group of villagers. Harry dies when he saves a cornered Chris from certain death.
Spared by the Adaptation: The Village Elder, who died in Kurosawa's film, survives in this film. Chico, as a composite of Kikuchiyo (who died) and Katsushiro (who survived), makes for a half-example.
The Stoic: Pretty much every one of the seven — except Chico — falls under this trope; the other six have seen so much in their day that it takes a lot to unnerve them.
Stop Helping Me!: Bernardo's Instant Fanclub follows him everywhere and tries to help him in any way; they get him killed in the final battle when they distract him during a gunfight.
— has so much testosterone that a girl risks getting pregnant just by watching it. Numerous film historians call it one of the last great westerns.
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