The Silver Screen Oasis

On the audio commentary of " The Magnificent Seven ", the Producer Walter Mirisch states that there were protests at the time of the film's original release by Mexican groups becuase of the films overt racism, the " hidden message " of the film being that Mexicans need the of help of gringos in order to rid themselves of the bandits.


Any comments on this film would be greatly welcomed, and those comments do not have to deal with the alleged racism.

"They're white friend. And old Sam, well, old Sam was an Indian."

"Well I'll be damned. I never knew you had to be anything, but a corpse to get into Boot Hill. How long's this been going on?"

"Since the town got civilized. Oh, it's not my doin boys, I've always treated every man the same--just another future customer."

"Well if that's the case get that hearse rollin."

"I can't. My driver's quit!"

"He's predjudiced too huh?"

"Well, when it comes to a chance of getting his head blown off, he's downright bigoted!"

Yep - The " racism " never entered my mind in regard Mexican - Gringos until I heard the producer comments. I always had taken the film, if anything, after that early sequence, as anti - racist. It was pretty bold, at the time of the film's release, to question segregated cemeteries.

A very interesting discussion of "The Magnificent Seven" can be found in the book "Gunfighter Nation" by Richard Slotkin. He emphasizes the image of Mexico in Westerns, from Ford's "Rio Grande" to Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch." He sees "Magnificent Seven" as basically a Cold War allegory arguing that American involvement was necessary to stop the expansion of Communism in third world countries. Interestingly, he also sees that as the point of "Shane," in which Shane has to save the (Anglo) sodbusters from the bad guys.

The imdb site for The Magnificent Seven lists Mexican actor/director/producer Emilio Fernandez as an "assistant director, uncredited". Sr. Fernandez' imdb filmography asserts that he was placed
there by the Mexican government with the assignment of making sure that Mexicans were not portrayed in a degrading manner. Avoiding
negative images of Mexicans was one of the conditions of being allowed
to film in Mexico.

Okay. When Return Of The Seven, the first sequel, came out six years later, Sr. Fernandez had a major support role as the leader of the
opposing forces.-- And it was filmed in Spain.

I have no idea if there is any cause-and-result here. I simply put it out
there in case someone else might know.

ken123 wrote:Yep - The " racism " never entered my mind in regard Mexican - Gringos until I heard the producer comments. I always had taken the film, if anything, after that early sequence, as anti - racist. It was pretty bold, at the time of the film's release, to question segregated cemeteries.

A liberal film !

MikeBSG wrote:A very interesting discussion of "The Magnificent Seven" can be found in the book "Gunfighter Nation" by Richard Slotkin. He emphasizes the image of Mexico in Westerns, from Ford's "Rio Grande" to Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch." He sees "Magnificent Seven" as basically a Cold War allegory arguing that American involvement was necessary to stop the expansion of Communism in third world countries. Interestingly, he also sees that as the point of "Shane," in which Shane has to save the (Anglo) sodbusters from the bad guys.

I don't mean to get off track here, but I've read that before about Shane and it never seemed to fit or jibe with the movie, at least to me. I TRIED to ee it that way...but the more I watch it, the more I think of Shane as an allegory about WWII and the Nazis... After his experiences in Germany at the end of the war, Stevens was really shaken up. Somehow, that just makes more sense to me, that it was about WWII and all the countries involved. Some times you have to stand up and fight against real evil... and Stevens had first hand knowledge of that evil. I have no idea if my ideas are remotely true.... I don't remember reading anything Steven's said about communism or WWII being an influence on him. I do know that he had a strong sense of justice, and I don't think he would have leapt onto the communism bandwagon that hurriedly.

I just had to put that two cents worth in... I've been thinking about SHane for a long time and wanted to voice those feelings I had before I forgot again.

Back to Magnificent Seven. I think it was one of those pictures that was liberal in it's day, but we still had a long way to go, prejudice wise...