Nice scenery

Gary Cooper

1930's

John Wayne

1930's 

Steve McQueen and Yule Brenner

Magnificent Seven, 1960

Can scruffy young Hollywood actors come close to these old movie stars? Whoa, those guys were real hunks.

We watched the new Magnificent Seven movie on DVD this weekend.  Skip it, unless you like non-stop violence. Unlike the original, the remake is light on character development and heavy on the "action."

The cast is politically correct, almost to the point of silliness. The Indian of course is a bow and arrow sharpshooter, etc. etc.   John said the only stereotype missing was The Funny Gay Guy, which actually might have helped the movie along. 

Apparently Steve McQueen was notoriously difficult to work with on the set. Filming the Magnificent Seven, he learned to cock his shotgun with one hand in a flashy way, and insisted on doing it even when Yule Brenner complained that McQueen was stealing his scenes. He was.  No one was cooler than Steve McQueen.

Part of the pleasure of watching fine old westerns is location cinematography. True Grit was filmed in Oray Country during fall aspen season when the Colorado mountains are breathtakingly beautiful.

All the outdoor scenes in the original Magnificent Seven movie were filmed in Arizona and northern Mexico.

Maybe people don't notice these things anymore, but in the new movie the backdrop keeps changing from scene to scene.  On minute you're in a place like Monument Valley, then open prairie, then green hills, then desert, then a rushing river. Discombobulating, but why travel to real locations when it can be computer generated?