The Magnificent Seven
A poor village in Mexico is periodically raided for food and supplies by Calvera (Eli Wallach) and his bandits. After he and his forty men's latest raid, during which they kill a villager, the village leaders decide the situation cannot continue. They discuss it with the venerated elder (Vladimir Sokoloff) who lives just outside the village, and he recommends they fight back. Taking what meager objects of value the village has, a delegation rides to a town just inside the United States border hoping to barter for weapons to defend themselves with. Once there they approach Chris Adams (Yul Brynner), a veteran Cajun gunslinger. Chris suggests they hire gunfighters to defend the village, which would be cheaper than buying guns and ammunition. He cautions the village men that once they actively resist Calvera they will have to keep killing until all the bandits are dead. At first Chris agrees only to help the delegation find capable men, but later he decides to recruit and lead them. Despite the poor pay offered, he is able to find five willing gunmen.
The other men include the gunfighter Vin Tanner (Steve McQueen), who has gone broke after a round of gambling and jokes he may have to accept a position as a store clerk; Chris's friend Harry Luck (Brad Dexter), who believes Chris knows about hidden treasure near the village; the Irish-Mexican Bernardo O'Reilly (Charles Bronson), who has fallen on hard times; Britt (James Coburn), an expert in both knife and gun who joins purely for the challenge involved; and the dapper, on-the-run gunman Lee (Robert Vaughn), haunted by thoughts that he has lost his nerve and taste for battle. On their way to the village they are trailed by the hotheaded Chico (Horst Buchholz), an aspiring gunfighter whom Chris had previously humiliated by rejecting him. Now impressed by his persistence, Chris invites him to join the group.
Arriving at the village, they have the villagers build fortifications and begin to train them to defend themselves. Each finds himself befriending particular villagers. Chico is romantically pursued by Petra (Rosenda Monteros), one of the village's young women. (Village elders had hidden all the young women, fearing the gunfighters might rape them, but Chico had stumbled across their hiding place.) Bernardo bonds with some of the village's boys. Residents comfort Lee, who is struggling with nightmares and fearing the loss of his skills. Harry presses the villagers for information about any treasure. Later, when Bernardo points out that the seven are consuming almost all the food in the village, the gunmen share it with the village children.
Calvera and his bandits arrive, sustain heavy losses in a shootout with the seven and the villagers, and are run out of town. Hilario (Jorge Martínez de Hoyos) and Vin, guarding against another possible attack, briefly discuss nerves on the eve of battle. Vin admits he still feels such nerves, and says he envies Hilario for fighting for an honourable cause. Chico, who is Mexican, partly from recklessness and partly to impress the others, follows Calvera back to his camp and pretends to be one of the bandits. He learns that Calvera must raid the village soon because he and his men are desperate for food.
Upon hearing this information, some fearful villagers call for the gunfighters to leave. Even some of the seven waver: Vin is of two minds; and Harry argues they were hired merely to put up enough resistance that Calvera would move on to an easier village. But Chris insists that they stay, even threatening to kill anyone who suggests giving up the fight. They ride out to make a surprise raid on Calvera's camp, but find it abandoned. Returning to the village, they find that some villagers have allowed Calvera and his men to sneak in and take control. Calvera spares the seven's lives, believing they have learned that the simple farmers are not worth defending. He also fears reprisals from the gunfighters' friends north of the border. While gathering their things before departing, Chris and Vin talk of how they had become emotionally attached to the village, and might have been tempted to give up their careers as gunmen and settle in such a place. Bernardo gets angry with the boys he befriended when they call their parents cowards. Chico raves against the villagers and how much he hates them, and when Chris reminds him he is of just such peasant stock he angrily responds that it is men like Calvera and Chris who made the villagers what they are.
The seven gunmen are escorted some distance from the village, where their weapons are returned to them. They debate their next move and all but Harry, who believes the effort will be futile and suicidal, agree to return and fight. Harry rides off alone.
Returning to the village, the six gunmen are able to get well within it before being detected. A gunfight breaks out. Harry, who has had a change of heart, arrives in time to prevent a cornered Chris from being killed, but is himself fatally shot. Before his death Chris comforts him by saying there was indeed a fortune hidden in the village. Lee finds the nerve to burst into a house where several villagers are held captive, shooting the bandits guarding them. This enables the villagers, some of whom were among those who had comforted Lee, to join in the fight on the side of the seven. Lee emerges from the house to see this, but is gunned down. Bernardo is shot protecting the boys he befriended, with his last breath he tells them to look at how bravely their fathers are fighting. Britt dies after shooting at a considerable number of bandits but exposing himself from cover. Chris manages to shoot Calvera, who asks him, "You came back... to a place like this? Why? A man like you? Why?" He dies without receiving an answer. The remaining bandits take flight.
The three surviving gunmen help to bury the dead, then ride out of town. At the top of the hill overlooking the village they stop to look back. Chris says adios to Chico, both having realized his proper place is in the village, with Petra; she is overjoyed when she sees he has returned. Chris and Vin chat with the venerated elder. He bids them farewell and says that only the villagers have really won: "You're like the wind, blowing over the land and... passing on... ¡Vaya con Dios!" As they leave, they pass the graves of their fallen comrades. Chris says, "The Old Man was right. Only the farmers won. We lost. We'll always lose."
revenge, cult, murder, violence