The Magnificent Seven

Lucky for me, someone finally released one of the greatest scores of all time. And it also just happened to be to one of my favorite films of all time. Ryko, in one of their more recent batches of MGM / UA releases on CD has released Elmer Bernstein's watershed score to The Magnificent Seven. Some say it's a retelling of Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, but I say it's much more once helmed with the likes of Yul Brenner, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, and my two favorites, Steve McQueen and James Coburn. When you rank Bernstein's score, and most prominently, it's main theme, you come upon one of the most recognizable pieces of music known to the world round, some say second only to the James Bond (Norman/Barry)and Pink Panther (Mancini) themes. Bernstein, himself, has even parodied himself in later films like Spies Like Us, The Three Amigos, and Stripes where a bold "western-esque" theme was called for. Earlier I reviewed James Horner's score to The Mask Of Zorro hinting that pointers should be taken from earlier works, and this is one of those. Implementing a Mexican/Spanish influenced character themes without out sounding patronizing to the musical structure.

Fortunately for the release, and possibly not so for the audiophiles, the original mono masters were dug up, cleaned up, and pressed onto this expanded 67 minute release. My only qualm is that there is no enhanced CD section on this release, but I would rather have the complete score (and a grand one it is) than a movie trailer clip. For mono, the sound quality is still quite exquisite, with some dynamics within the score showing the limits, possibly, of the source material. A sequel, one of the real firsts for a feature film that wasn't classified as a serial, was released with the "surviving" cast in 1966, called The Return of the (Magnificent) Seven. It's score, also by Elmer Berstein, elaborates on many of the themes established in the first film, and was handily released earlier this year by Ryko, in stereo. For tin ears, the 1994 re-recording of the original Magnificent Seven on Koch is nicely recorded in stereo, and compares nicely, cue for cue with this release (with out the Hallelujah Trail suite on the end). However, for the sake of having the original as it appeared in with the film, paced as it was for the brilliantly photographed film, this release, by far is one of the best of Ryko's new re-issues. It's definitely not hard to imagine each shot of the film while listening, mentally arranging the story on your mental canvas. A time when good guys didn't necessarily wear white, and the bad guys were really mean and nasty, and looked the part, too!

If you have yet to see this film, I advise you go out and rent it or purchase it. Unfortunately it has yet to see a DVD release, which I believe is in the works. Hopefully it will be chocked full of extras, a fitting tribute to a fine, and just plain fun, film.