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A word to the wise: when you’re trying to make a sequel,
don’t choose a parent movie in which four of seven main
characters die. Another word of advice: before you start
shooting, see if more than one of the people who starred
in the first movie want to be in the new one. ***
Not that doing either of those things wouldn’t have
helped The Return of the Magnificent Seven much, but they
should have been signs that making this movie wasn’t a good
idea. The original Magnificent Seven movie was popular among
audiences (even if critics weren’t universally thrilled),
largely because of its amazing cast, which included Yul
Brynner, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach, Robert Bronson, and
James Coburn. By the end of the movie, Bronson, Wallach,
and Coburn’s characters were dead, leaving only Brynner,
McQueen, and Horst Buchholz were available for a possible
sequel. ***
McQueen and Buchholz weren’t available, so director
Burt Kennedy did the next best thing: recast them. Actually,
that wasn’t even close to the next best thing, and Robert
Fuller comes nowhere near replacing Steve McQueen. ***
It wouldn’t have really mattered if he had, because
there is so much more wrong with the movie than poor casting.
The directing isn’t very good and the story makes no sense.
Chico (played by Buchholz in the first movie; played by
Julian Mateos in the second) is still farming away in the
village the guys saved in the first movie. Fifty raiders
swoop down on the village, just like in the first movie,
and kidnap all the men, which was not in the first movie.
****
It turns out a wealthy rancher, Lorca needs to build
a town and church as a memorial for his dead son, an idea
that somehow got off the drawing board and actually got
filmed. Lorca is perfectly willing to spend money on architects
and construction materials and everything else you need
to build a town, but absolutely draws the line at hiring
workers. Come to think of it, since he has a small army
of gunmen, why does he need to kidnap the villagers in the
first place? ***
Anyway, Chris and Vin (the two survivors from the first
film) recruit Warren Oates, Claude Atkins, and a couple
more even more forgettable people to rescue the villagers.
From there, imagine everything going precisely as you would
expect it. Except that evidently there were people who thought
the original was sorely lacking in explosions, so dynamite
plays a big role in the climax, if you can call it that,
of the movie. ***
On the bright side, the only two things left over from
the original are pretty good. Yul Byrnner is cool as ever,
and Elmer Bernstein’s score was nominated for an Academy
Award. Apart from those two bright spots, though, the movie
is pretty bad. ***
Audio and Video:
The video looks good, though not outstanding. The colors
look good but a little grainy. The audio is decent but not
spectacular. ----
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