"A coward dies many times, the brave only once."
To what do I refer? I am talking about the excellent movie Guns of the Magnificent Seven. Now, obviously the original is the best of the four movies, but after being let down by the sequel Return of the Seven, Guns more than makes up for it in my opinion. Return is basically the first movie with different actors, done badly. Guns tells a slightly different story and is much better for it.
Before I go too far here is the order of the movies from best to worst:
Now of course people will say Seven Samurai is the best. Well of course it is, it is the source material, but that is not what the topic of this post is about. So with that side track out of the way...
I am going to assume if you are reading this you have seen the original Magnificent Seven... and if you have not, go watch it, come back here and then read the rest of this post! Better yet watch Guns of the Magnificent Seven too then come back.
Ok, you are back?
One downside that starts us off, Yul Brynner is not playing Chris Adams. This time around George Kennedy takes the helm as Chris Adams. While not as slick as Yul Brynner he did make for a great leader of the Seven. At first I thought I would not like his portrayal, but I was pleasantly surprised. While watching it I did not see him as Chris Adams so much as George playing another guy named Chris Adams... If that makes sense. In other words it is a good western and a good actor that stands on their own merits. If it had not been part of the Magnificent Seven series it would stand on its own merits as a fine movie.
One area I think that helped drive the story is that in this version the viewer actually cares about the assembled Seven, unlike Return where the viewer is left scratching their heads. I especially like Joe Don Baker's character Slater as an ex-Confederate soldier trying to make a living in the west while maimed from his wartime service which has caused his life to spiral downwards. He does not have too many scenes in the movie, but I found myself wanting more of him on screen.
Monte Markham stars as Vin Tanner, err make that Keno, Chris' right-hand-man in this version of the series. I found myself liking him in this role and I think he did well rather than the ill fit of Robert Fuller as Vin in Return. Much like the casting of Kennedy it works.
Another point on actors is James Whitmore as Levi Morgan, an aging knife thrower/former outlaw who looked old even back in 1969. Most younger people will know him from his role as Brooks in The Shawshank Redemption.
Rounding out the thoughts on the cast. In a 2 hour-ish movie it is difficult to get to the other characters but they somehow manage to do it with Cassie a black laborer-physical dynamo, Max the young Mexican (taking over the role/spot of Chico) and PJ the enigmatic clad in black gunfighter who has the least amount of screen time of all of them.
Without spoiling it too much let's say the story is a departure from the normal fare in regards to the theme of the Magnificent Seven of helping innocent villagers. The assembly of the seven goes quickly as we hop from member to member without any lag in the story. The use of the Mexican federal military rather than raiding outlaws is a welcome change. It is also cool anytime a western has a Gatling gun which the bad guys do.
In closing, as the title of the post suggests, the best line is delivered at the very end by George Kennedy in Spanish to a very young Reni Santoni. What makes this great is that his character Max repeats it back in English (which is a twist on the way his character communicates through the movie; struggling to find the right words in English and reverting to Spanish):
"A coward dies many times, the brave only once."
I give Guns 4 out of 5 stars and if I could, I would give Return of the Seven zero...
Lastly, on a side note it looks like Denzel Washington is talking about joining a remake of The Magnificent Seven. Woot!
