Double Feature: 50th Anniversary! THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN & JUNIOR BONNER June 17, 2010

Double Feature: 50th Anniversary!
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, 1960, MGM Repertory, 128 min. This excellent Americanized version of Akira Kurosawa’s classic THE SEVEN SAMURAI, helmed by noted action auteur John Sturges and starring charismatic Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson and many others, follows seven hired gunmen as they safeguard a Mexican farm village from a marauding bandit chieftain (Eli Wallach). With an instantly memorable Elmer Bernstein score that inspired everything from future westerns to cigarette commercials (!) for decades to come.

JUNIOR BONNER, 1972, ABC (Disney), 100 min. Dir. Sam Peckinpah. Steve McQueen is Junior Bonner, a restless rodeo star trying to deal with his drifter-con man dad (Robert Preston) and outspoken, responsible mom (Ida Lupino), as well as girlfriend Barbara Leigh – when he’s not getting his head busted on bucking broncs. A sometimes funny, sometimes melancholy meditation on Americans who’ve forsaken the 9-to-5 strait–jacket to thrive in a much more rugged lifestyle. With Ben Johnson and Joe Don Baker.