Irakli Makharadze is a documentary film director working in a Georgia State TV film company in Tbilisi, Georgia (former Soviet Republic).

Irakli has a deep interest in the history of the American West, and has written numerous articles about Western films in local newspapers and magazines. Having had much experience in producing TV shows about this magnificent genre, Irakli has also published a book entitled WESTERN FILMS, which is the first book written on this topic in his country.

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Now I would like to let you know about a movie that has had a great impact on my compatriots.

Undoubtedly Magnificent Seven (directed by John Sturges) remains the most popular western (and probably the most famous movie in general) among the Soviet public.

Since its release in Soviet Georgia in the end of the 1960s, Magnificent Seven became a great success. None of the previously issued movies have had the ticket office lines of the same length as Magnificent Seven. One had to be as strong and muscular as Charles Bronsons OReilly to be able to get ticket in such a multitude of people. Such kind of crowds would be normal even on the reruns of the movie, even couple of years after its release when the audience had seen the Seven for many times.

During these times the businesses of the speculators (the illegal sellers who would sell the tickets for a much higher price), would blossom. But who would care for a much higher price, when there was such a spectacular event to look forward to. For a couple of hours the Magnificent Seven, an example of the free lifestyle brought to us from the western world, would help us forget about the existence of an enormous cage, the confinement we lived in called the Soviet Union.

Each time the movie was shown, the audience would become the part of the action on the screen. Some would encourage the movie characters, repeated the lines learned by heart (the lines were translated into Russian). Coming out of the show, the audience would rush to buy the black and white photographs sold on the street and produced by taking a photograph of the movie from the screen. At those times, such kind of a photograph would normally cost 20 Soviet kopeks. On black market, one dollar equaled three roubles; there were 100 kopeks in a rouble.

Yul Brynner had a special popularity among the Soviet audience. People imitated his movements, everybody admired his self-restrain and calmness, another audience favorite was taciturn James Coburn. Boys would compete in knife throwing for hours... Everybody wanted to catch three flies with one shot, just as Robert Vaughns Lee performed it on the big screen. The "least" popular characters were Horst Buchholz and Brad Dexter.

Interestingly, the latter was the most human character in the entire movie, as opposed to his friends.

The actor I admired was Steve McQueen. His ironic and courageous Vin overshadowed everybody else in the movie. In Magnificent Seven McQueen played the role of a henchman to the leading actor Brynner, just like the greatest Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune in the Seven Samurai (from which Magnificent Seven had originated). In both of the movies the characters of Mifune and McQueen are the ones remembered the best.

I think in the history of American film nobody could express his emotions without using any words, with just a mere gaze of extremely expressive eyes, like McQueen.

Although McQueen appeared in TVs Wanted-Dead or Alive as well as three of the western movies (Magnificent Seven, Nevada Smith, Tom Horn) the American western was not able to fully utilize the potential of this talented person.

Tom Horn (1980) was one of McQueens best works as an actor, if we dont count great classics such as Papillon. However, Tom Horn was not as successful as McQueen and the studio had anticipated it to be.
The real Tom Horn was considered an example of anachronism. In the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century the days of the Wild West were past gone and as they say, character of Tom Horn was born very late for his time. The same happened to this movie in general since in the time of its release, the popularity of western genre has decreased significantly. There were many reasons for it. One of the reasons was that the cinema audience, especially the youth, needed to see new kind of heroes on the screen cynical and violent characters such as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. One of the critics described this situation in the following manner: "Tom Horn" suffered from public antipathy to the genre. In an earlier decade, this lyrical, deeply felt little film would have been hailed as a classic."

With all its artistic dignity, Magnificent Seven still lags behind the original Japanese Seven Samurai (it should be noted that this movie was influenced by the American western Shane). Howard Thompson of New York Times wrote: "A pallid, pretentious and overlong reflection of the Japanese original. Dont expect anything like the ice-cold suspense, the superb juxtaposition of revealing human vignettes, and especially the pile-driver tempo of the original "Seven."

The American western has greatly influenced Japanese cinema. The Japanese filmmakers have very well translated, understood and have given their own national form to the American western. They have created an extremely dynamic action movies about the samurai epoch based on the history of their own land. The Japanese have retained every humane motif of American classical western.

Japanese western clearly reflects the face as well as the past of the nation that have produced it. Interestingly, later on the Americans borrowed from the Japanese samurai movies to enrich the western films. Several wonderful movies by Akira Kurosava became inspiration to couple of equally interesting American movies as well (Sergio Leones A Fistful Of Dollars, Martin Ritts The Outrage).

American moviemakers often use Japanese themes in their movies the action usually starts in USA and ends in Japan, or vice versa - is not coincidental. In such kind of movies the samurai with kimono are changed by modern gangsters (Yakuza in Japanese), who still live by adhering to their national traditions.

It is an interesting fact that among the Japanese gangsters the instrument of revenge is the samurai sword. Their sentiment toward it was the following: "Pistol is a mechanism, a machine! The sword, on the other contrary, is a continuation of a human hand and I can express all of my hatred toward my enemy, when my sword bears through their body". It is worth noting that after seeing the Magnificent Seven, Akira Kurosava sent the director John Sturges the samurai sword as the sign of respect.

Unfortunately, among the actors from Magnificent Seven, only Robert Vaughn remains alive today. McQueen died 7th of November 1980, Brynner in 1985, Buchholz, Dexter, Coburn and Bronson passed away this year.

Even today, when Magnificent Seven is shown on the Georgian TVs, the viewer who has seen this movie many times before, still watches it with great interest and envies those lucky ones who were able to see the film when it was first released.

Copyright © 2003  Irakli Makharadze. No unauthorized reproduction ádÓdáàáá åTå£&“Þ 148.64.43.80…@æ1.0.14èCOMPUTERTEáRçwS…@áâ€Öj in general) among the Soviet public.

Since its release in Soviet Georgia in the end of the 1960s, Magnificent Seven became a great success. None of the previously