The Magnificent Seven and the Cold War

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The Magnificent Seven and the Cold War

John Kennedy’s Argument and the Movie

Most developing countries in Africa, Latin America, Middle East and Asia started getting their independence in the 1950s and the 1960s although there are those countries, which got independence as early as the 1940s and there are those that received as late as the 1990s like South Africa. As the European countries left these countries to be independent and be sovereign states, other countries like the United States stated helping these countries to be fully independent by helping them with various resources and advice. In the film world, most films were made after certain themes of a particular season. The Magnificent Seven is such a film. Having been a strong supporter of the independence of the developing countries, Kennedy’s belief of American utmost support of the developing countries in all ways is evidently seen in this movie.

Having been produced in 1960, The Magnificent Seven reflected the activities going on at that particular period, the period a little earlier and the period after in real life. The movie is about a Mexican village that is constantly invaded by bandits who take away their crops of a year’s hard work. In their quest to free themselves from this torture, they travel to look for gunslingers, which will help them fight the bandits when they make another visit (Sturges, 1960). They go to the states, where they come across Chris, who advices them that hiring men would be much cheaper than the guns. They persuade Chris to help them fight the bandits, who finally agrees to help them. He recruits others, who agree to join for various reasons and finally head back to the village to teach the other villagers how to use the guns and fight for themselves. They end up putting up a good fight although four of the seven men die at the end of the final raid.

‘The Magnificent Seven’ represent the Americans who were willing to help the developing countries grow. The Mexican villagers represent the developing countries, which had not yet gotten their freedom. The bandits represented the colonizing countries and the Soviet Union that did not want to let the people be democratic and govern themselves. When the villagers went to the village’s wise man (Vladimir Sokoloff) to ask for guidance on what to do with the oppression issue, the wise man answers with a phrase “fight, you must fight” (Sturges, 1960). He advices them to hire guns and fight for themselves and that is when the villagers go to the states in search of the guns. The advice from the old man can be likened to what the colonized countries did in order to get their independence. They fought for themselves. However, the guns they were going to search for represent the weaponry aid they needed for their fight.

When the villagers found Chris, he became a sign of hope. Chris represents the Americans John Kennedy was referring to, who were willing to help the third world countries. He recruits others who agreed to help them although they were in it for various reasons. They all go into the village and agree to train the villagers so that there can be a bigger group when the bandits come to raid them. All these help is likened to the help and the support that the Americans gave to the developing countries as they stabilized themselves. The villagers gave them food such that they starved themselves to see that the seven men were well fed. This can be likened to the way these developing countries got out of their way in order to please the Americans, so that they would not withdraw their help. However, the seven fighters were fair enough to share their food with the villagers and especially the children.

In the process of training the villagers, the men get fond of them. Bernados becomes a great friend of the children, which finally becomes the cause of his death. Chico befriends Petra, whom he decides to stay with after the others leave. This shows that the fighters had a good side of them and were not only there for their own personal gains. When the bandits raid the villagers, they are surprised to find that the villagers have some other people who are willing to fight for them. Instead of getting away to some other village as the men intended, they promise to return and fight back again. The seven fighters decide to go and raid the bandits’ camp but they find it empty. On their way back, they are captured by the bandits who did not kill them, but discourage them from helping the villagers, as they are not worth it (Sturges, 1960). This can be likened to the other nation’s opposition when the Americans helped these countries. The returning of the fighters back to helping the villagers even though there was no pay was a symbol of the willingness of the Americans to help the developing countries.

When the group decides to return to the village, they find that the villagers had let the bandits in. Although this was discouraging, they still fought for the villagers. This was a portrayal of the Americans’ will to help the other countries no matter what. When they were going back to the village for the second time, one of the group’s member, Harry, did not go with them. This is symbol of the lack of support by all the Americans in helping these other countries, especially if there is nothing to gain back. However, he later joins them and saves Chris from being shot. The bandits manage to go away, four of the group members are left dead. Chico remains behind with Petra while Chris and Vin leave the village after looking at the graves of the four who had died. This portrayed of some of the challenges the Americans were facing and would continue facing as they helped.

Movies and the Prevailing Times

A number of movies have been made based on the activity that is most popular at particular times. The Magnificent Seven is one of those movies. This particular movie was greatly influenced by the cultural, political and social issues at that particular film. A film like Sarafina was based on the apartheid and sufferings of the South Africans as they struggled to free themselves from apartheid. Other films have been made about World War 1, African American discrimination and other forms of racism, gender inequality or equality, amongst others. The main aim is to bring the limelight to the specific issues in question and give it the desired twist by the writer.

Although The Magnificent Seven is considered as the 1960 version of the 1954 Seven Samurai, it brought a number of things that were currently going not in America, but in the world at that particular period. The Americans were involving themselves with helping the developing countries stabilize and follow the bad ways of governance left by the colonial states. This is greatly seen in the movie where the villagers get help from the American group led by Chris (Sturges, 1960). The various challenges and oppositions seen in the film are a resemblance of the challenges the people Americans faced when trying to help these countries and the when trying to get others into helping the countries. However, the writers of the film could have done a better job at coming up with a more original film.

When the film writers and the directors come up with a film that is almost a copy of another, there lacks originality and the viewers may lack the needed attention to pass the message intended. In an attempt to bring out the political and social issues, the scholars did not come up with an original piece. When a writer decides to tell a particular story, he/she tells it in a number of ways. There is the writer who will tell a story according to how he/she views the particular issue in question. There is the writer who will write about a particular issue according to how he/she feels how the society views the particular issue. There is another writer, who will write about another issue in accordance of how he/she felt another party viewed the same issue. In attempting to reach their goals, the scholars ‘bend’ too much in some cases until the film looses what it was originally meant to portray.

Although the political issues cannot be directly detected in the movie The Magnificent Seven, they arise in an indirect way. It was wise of the scholars to use bandits instead of direct governments or direct wars between states. The use of the bandits and the village, gives a familiar setting especially in the 1960s. The viewers then could easily familiarize with the situation. It also gave a twist the common movies that reflected direct political governance, wars, and so on.

When film scholars try to communicate a certain message or bring out a particular theme that would be a source of conflict, they use a number of ‘tricks’ or twists so that they evade the conflict. They may use other things to represent the original idea. For example, in this case, they used the bandits to represent the colonialists and the opposing forces of change to the developing countries; they used the villagers to represent the developing countries and the seven group members to represent America. This was a good to twist to the real life situations. Filmmaking is about telling a story. However, what differs is how the story is told. It is important to be as original as possible.

People tend to watch movies that they can easily associate with but have an exciting or interesting twist to it. This is why the majority of the film scholars will mostly focus on the issues that are happening in the society rather than fictitious issues. However, they normally add a few things here and there or subtract others, but remain with what they originally intended to communicate. There are those who will choose to write about topics that have not been explored before and they have their own viewers. After all is said and done, it is important to make sure that a film scholar does not go to the extreme in trying to air a certain issue.

Works Cited

Sturges, John, dir. The Magnificent Seven. The Mirisch Company, 1960. Film.