seven guns

There's a lot of remakes being made today and most of them can't measure up to their original. Not so with The Magnificent Seven (1967), it was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954). Magnificent Seven had some sequels and a television show based on the original movie, but didn't measure up to the first. I would love to do a remake though.

I don't think I would set my sites on trying to tell the same story again - I would rework the original storyline. I recently watched Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969). The movie was about old desperadoes that went into a fire fight completely outnumbered knowing full well that they were not going to walk out of it. I read where Peckinpah's slow motion action sequences concept was largely influenced by Kurosawa's Seven Samauri. So there is already a little link between the two movies.

I think if I were to make the film, the seven would be old gunmen like those depicted in The Wild Bunch. These guys are pretty much living in border towns because they've been in so much trouble with the law that the border hasn't just become a hideout, but more like home. They have pretty much banished themselves from any hope of real home because of their misdeeds. I think the retelling should be of men who had prefer going out in a blaze of gun fire rather than just fading away.

Robert Duval comes to mind as the main character Chris (Yul Brynner role) and Tommy Lee Jones as Vin (the Steve McQueen role). It would be a Lonesome Dove reunion of sorts. These guys have ridden together for years and it would be fun to write dialogue for them (think Cheyenne Social Club - Jimmy Stewart & Henry Fonda). Bruce Dern and Donald Southerland would be two more old desperadoes.

Three of the seven will be lawmen of sorts. Men who were initially sent to hunt down Chris & Vin. James Garner comes to mind as a lawman, Deke Bishop, sent to find Chris and Vin. Like Robert Ryan's character in The Wild Bunch - Garner's character once road with Chris and Vin in his younger days. He's got some young guns riding with him as a posse' who opt to stay for the final confrontation.

The village that is defended in this movie isn't being terrorized by bandits but rather by the Mexican army led by a corrupt general. Yes, this treatment leans more toward Peckinpah's Wild Bunch over Sturges' The Magnificent Seven. Basically the outlaws and the pursuing lawmen find themselves in a village that are desperately in need of help. It's Chris that is approached by the villagers. Deke for reasons of his own decides to offer his talents to help the outlaws. "Hell, Chris - I can't let you be the good guys."

First conversation after Deke and his men catch up with the outlaws:

Deke: "Why are you doing this Chris? This isn't like you. There's no fortune in this for you."
Chris looks off into the distance as if peering at a distant memory.
Chris: "Did you know my papa was a missionary? My childhood was spent livin' in a village just like this. I grew up resenting his love for these corn farmers. I hated him for it. I left one day and never went back - never saw him agin."
Deke: "The Chris I knew never talked about atonement."
Chris: "Maybe I'm just tired of running...or maybe you're right. Maybe atonement is what this old sinner needs. I've lived bad - lived the only way I knew to live after I got handy with a gun. I've lived bad but never been that kind of bad that's caused all those graves in the field. This town is dying because there are too many graves over there. Either way, I ain't leaving."
Deke: "I've come all the way down here for you. I can't leave here without you."

Chris never changed his expression - he just spoke quietly and matter of fact.

Chris: "Deke, I know what you don't want me to know - the reason you brought all those young guns down here with you. You never were as fast as me and now that you're old - you're even slower. Draw down on me and I'll kill you right where you stand. I'll kill you first and put the rest of my bullets inside as many of your boys as I can. You ain't got me cornered. You're the mouse that thinks you've cornered the cat."
Deke: "You're not running?"
Chris: "I ain't running...and I ain't giving up my guns neither."
Deke: "You don't give me any choice Chris."
Chris: "You got a choice. If you want to take me back, come back in week or two and find me among the dead. You or the buzzards - no difference to me. You can die right now or come back after the whole dang Mexican army gets finished with us."
Deke: "What if you live?"
Chris: "Then we can pick up where we left off - right here - only without all the talking."
Deke: "What about you Vin? What are you going to do?"
Vin smiles and says, "I'm with stupid."

Quentin Tarantino comes to mind as the director. I think he'd do a great Mexican standoff. Then again, Robert Rodriguez knows how to shoot up a Mexican village like no one else. I'll leave that up to your imagination. The soundtrack stays the same. The soundtrack doesn't change one iota.