In a stroke of filmmaking inspiration, director John Sturges saw the possibilities of transposing Akira Kurosawa’s film classic “The Seven samurai”, from feudal Japan to the American West. And it works brilliantly. Yul Brynner stars as the leader of a group of skilled gunfighters hired to protect a poor Mexican village from marauding bandits led by the vicious Calvera, played with ruthless delight by Eli Wallach. Fighting alongside Brynner and Steve McQueen are Charles Bronson, James Coburn and Robert Vaughn, whose film careers were launched by this film. With a now-classic musical score and stunning cinematography, this film provides exciting entertainment as well as touching on themes of dignity, honour, courage and survival. The film established a new standard for generations of Westerns to come.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
317708
Languages
Danish
Dutch
English
English
English
Finnish
French
German
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish
Audience classification
PG
Subject categories
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Motion picture remakes
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Motion picture trailers
Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Machismo
Feature films → Feature films - United States
Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Machismo
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
DVD; Access Print (Section 1)