Given the reins of a Seven Samurai remake, John Sturges turned out his own modern Western classic with The Magnificent Seven, a tale that re-imagines Akira Kurosawa’s hired-swordsman masterpiece as a saga of guns-for-hire cowboys employed to defend a poor Mexican farming town from Eli Wallach’s ruthless bandit. Sturges’ direction is subtly evocative throughout, using a variety of low-angled medium shots to accentuate the nobility of his heroes, led by no-nonsense Yul Brynner, and including laid-back Steve McQueen and quietly gallant Charles Bronson and James Coburn.

The Magnificent Seven marries multi-character drama and gunfight thrills to rousing effect, all while respectfully attuning itself to its source material’s way-of-the-samurai codes of honor. That element is best expressed through Brynner’s belief—evoked early on, when he risks his life to bury a Native American with the rest of his Caucasian scoundrel mates—that a man is defined not by race or class, but by his actions.- A.V. Club