Reviews

I am trying to watch "Crimes of the Century" on HLN. I say "trying" because, for some reason, some idiot editor got the bright idea to use a filter to make the last few words of interviewees sound like a storm trooper from the Star Wars movies. Way too distracting! The video editing is choppy and too frenetic. Apparently, this is based on the belief that the general public has a very short attention span, so frantic editing and weird sound effects are what's needed to hold the viewer's interest. This assault on my senses is needed to hold my attention? I hope this won't be the future of crime documentaries. Thanks, but no thanks. I want quality documentaries that are not produced to resemble MTV music videos.

There are two points here I would like to make:

(1) Let me say right off that I was quite anxious to find this film, but after reading all the reviews offered here, I don't think I want to. Man, I sure am glad I read the reviews from others first who have seen it before I wasted my money! Maybe it's easy for a reviewer from the United Kingdom or Ireland to accept Rich Hall's obvious disdain for America (as pointed out in these reviews), but being from America, I know I wouldn't be able to stomach it. I think it's laughable for someone from another part of the globe to grouse about what's wrong with America! Methinks you need to be an American to really know that.

(2). The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is my favorite Western, but from reading the other reviews here, it appears Mr. Hall despised that classic Western above all. That alone is enough to make me avoid this so-called "documentary" at all costs. I have a feeling I would end up jerking the DVD out of its player, taking it outside and running over it several times with my automobile! Rich Hall and BBC America, there's your "documentary"; and as Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly said, "I can give you a good idea where you can put it!"

Let me just say right from the get-go that I am so glad I have NOT seen The Seven Samurai, so that I can watch The Magnificent Seven without being encumbered with comparisons, and enjoy this excellent Western on its own merits. I am sick to death of reading the reviews of those who almost invariably (and predictably) bring up that comparison!

The Magnificent Seven boasts a cast of stars seldom brought together in one movie, albeit most of them were not big stars when they appeared in it, with the exception of main star Yul Brynner; stage-trained Eli Wallach had previously made a splash (and won a BAFTA award) in Elia Kazan's Baby Doll 4 years previously. Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn and Robert Vaughn became stars in a good measure because of their involvement in M7. Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz, who was touted as some sort of new James Dean, round out the cast, though their careers seemed to fade into oblivion after their appearance.

Wallach plays bandit leader Calvera. Brynner, McQueen, Bronson, Coburn, Vaughn, Dexter and Buchholz make up the 7 gunmen who are hired to defend a small Mexican village from the ravages of Calvera and his 40 bandits, who ride into the village periodically to loot them of the food and goods the villagers have managed to accumulate through their hard work. Calvera sees the village and its goods as his inalienable right to take from at will, justifying his looting in a line he says to Brynner's Chris: "If God didn't want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep!" The 7 gunmen teach the village farmers to defend themselves, although many of the villagers are too afraid to fight against Calvera. They justify their position by reasoning that Calvera and his men only take from them what they need and leave enough for the village to live on until their next raid.

I have read some reviewers' comments here about how unrealistic it was for Calvera to give the 7 back their guns after he had subdued them and forced them to leave at one point in the movie, and indeed, why he let them go at all and didn't kill them outright. Apparently, these reviewers are unable to connect the dots that are revealed in the movie! Calvera told Chris that the authorities north of the border might retaliate against him if he killed the gunmen. Also, because the villagers had turned on the 7 at that point, which allowed the bandits to take the village back, that Calvera surmised the gunmen would not return; thus he felt no more threat from them after he let them go. He reasoned that the 7 would surely not return to defend a village that had turned against them, so why not give them back their guns? Makes perfect sense to me. At the point when they did return, Calvera was genuinely surprised, asking Chris why he came back to a place like that.

I am sure the famous main theme music will be recognized by anyone who was living during the 1960s and 1970s, even if they haven't seen the movie. Marlboro cigarettes appropriated the theme for their TV and radio commercials, assuring its immortality. This score by Elmer Bernstein is stirring and sweeping, just as an epic Western's music should be!

Some feel the character development in M7 was lacking, and I tend to agree, as I feel it's the only flaw in an otherwise great movie. But I suppose that is the hazard in featuring this many lead actors in the same movie. Also, the overly enthusiastic acting of Horst Buccholz in many of his scenes. Indeed, I feel he was given too much screen time compared to Coburn, Bronson, Vaughn and Dexter. But John Sturges, the director, thought Buccholz would be a hit with viewers as a new type of James Dean, which didn't materialize, in great part because of having turned down some choice roles in movies that would turn out to be huge hits (such as the role of Tony in West Side Story, and the role of The Man With No Name in Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western trilogy!). Though Coburn, Bronson and Vaughn had few lines and defining scenes, they made an impact on viewers nevertheless, becoming big stars in movies and TV (in Vaughn's case, he became the star of TV's The Man From U.N.C.L.E.), as did Steve McQueen. Eli Wallach continued his steady movie career well into his 90s, finally retiring in 2010 at the age of 94! But I believe Robert Vaughn is the only cast member who is still with us.

Though The Magnificent Seven is not the best Western ever made, it should be on the bucket list of any fan of the genre and of fans of the lead actors, many of them before they were stars. Watch it to listen to the sweeping Bernstein score. But watch it!

"Romance of a Horsethief" is a marvelous, little-known gem that, unfortunately, appears to have been transferred to DVD from a badly degraded VHS recording. The sound especially is terrible, sounding like static when the volume passes even a moderate level. What a shame. I would like to think somewhere there is a quality studio transfer that could do this movie justice. The video also suffers. It isn't the worst I have ever seen, but "Horsethief" deserves better.

Obviously the reviewers here who say that Lainie Kazan stole the movie are men (one even noting her "twin weapons of mass destruction", etc.) She was good, an asset to the film, but it's obvious these men are ogling at a beautiful sexy body and their minds say, "She's the best thing in it!" :-D The scene stealers, if you ask me, a woman, are Yul Brynner and Eli Wallach, and my opinion is not influenced by their masculine assets! They were simply two excellent veteran actors chewing up the scenery as they usually did. This 1971 movie was not the first time Brynner and Wallach starred together; the first was the excellent 1960 Western "The Magnificent Seven". And of course, they were the standouts in that one as well.

I agree with a couple of reviewers who noted "Romance of a Horsethief" would have made a good musical, ala "Fiddler on the Roof". As a matter of fact, I thought of "Fiddler" as I watched "Horsethief". The setting and the mood, atmosphere, etc., even the title, would lend itself to musical numbers well.

If you can get your hands on a copy of this movie, you won't be sorry as far as the movie itself is concerned, if you can manage to look past the bad audio and middling video quality.

I can't believe so-called intelligent people actually waste their time on this drivel. Even worse, that The History Channel stoops to televising it! When History started out, it was an excellent haven for real history buffs; but now it has disintegrated into a parade of ludicrous reality shows that play to lowbrow sensibilities and crackpot beliefs in curses, UFOs and codes within the Bible and Shakespeare's plays. What a disappointment the channel has become! Ice Road Truckers? Swamp People? The Curse of Oak Island? Seriously folks, what do these shows have to do with history? More and more The History Channel is looking like just another sensation-driven, mind-out-to-lunch reality show soap opera.

I am a huge fan of Peter Falk, and I was intrigued by the fact that he won an Emmy Award for this episode of The Dick Powell Theater, and when I read a synopsis of the story, something about it sounded so familiar. Then bits and pieces came back to me, and I realized I had seen it before, many years ago. I vaguely remember my mother talking about the episode. I wish I could remember more about it, but memory fails. Having read so many positive comments, I really wish I could find this on DVD, but the only media I have been able to find it on is VHS tape, and I no longer own a VHS tape player. There is one seller (robertsvideo.com) that has it on DVD, but I read that it was recorded straight from the TV screen, so the quality would be less than stellar, for $25.00, $6.50 shipping. I don't know whether I want to pay that much for a DVD with dubious quality, but I want it badly enough that I have actually considered it. How I wish The Price of Tomatoes was on DVD!

Update: I bought the DVD of this Dick Powell Theater episode from the aforementioned Robert's Videos, and the quality is much better than I hoped! It was NOT recorded directly from the TV screen, but transferred from VHS tape onto DVD. It was well worth the price I paid for it, and will enjoy it again and again for years to come!

This mini-series is the PBS at its best. The Story of English is the only documentary mini-series that I watched and taped in its entirety. Since I live on the coastal area of North Carolina, USA and know some people who live on the outer banks(such as Harker's Island), I thought it rather amusing that "translations" were provided at the bottom of the screen for speakers from the Virginia barrier island of Tangier. These people sound exactly like the residents of Harker's Island, so I could understand everything that was said! This is a must-see for anyone who is interested in linguistics and/or history. I heard that it is not yet out on DVD. What a pity!