Original version of The Magnificent Seven debuts on the Outer Banks

By Submitted Story on March 9, 2023

Bringing together one of the finest ensemble casts ever assembled, The Magnificent Seven is one of the finest westerns ever put on film. The Don and Catharine Bryan Cultural Series will screen the film on Sunday, March 19 at the R/C Kill Devil Hills Movies 10, 1800 N. Croatan Highway, Kill Devil Hills. Chris Palestrant, Professor of Music Composition at ECSU, will offer his Peek Behind the Curtain at 4:00 p.m. The movie will be screened at 4:30. Tickets are $10 and available at the theater box office and online at the R/C Theater website.

The Magnificent Seven, based on Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 Japanese film Seven Samurai, is classic western myth—a gunslinger takes up the plight of the underdog against overwhelming odds. Poor Mexican farmers find Yul Brynner’s Chris Adams, a legendary gunslinger, and offer him all they have to come to their town and protect them from the ravages of the bandit Calvera, in what many consider Eli Wallach’s definitive film role.

The individual performances are iconic—perhaps none so much as James Coburn’s Britt. Fast, accurate and deadly with a knife, Coburn has almost no lines yet his character is one of the most memorable of the film.

What truly sets The Magnificent Seven apart, though, are the simultaneous journeys the audience and the magnificent seven take. As the characters’ back stories emerge, and the willingness of the villagers to fight for their land and dignity becomes ever more apparent, a sense of shared purpose, perhaps humanity emerges.

The climactic scene between the villagers, their hired guns and Calvera’s bandits is everything audiences have come to expect in the final scenes of a western. The action is fast and furious; there is heroism and humanity; guns and more guns; and until the end, it’s never clear who will survive and who will win.

The Magnificent Seven is the final film in the Byan Cultural Film Series. The next performance for the Bryan Cultural Series will be John McCutcheon, folk music’s renaissance man, on April 22 at St. Andrews by the Sea Episcopal Church, Nags Head.

For more information about the Bryan Cultural Series and to find more information about the screening of The Magnificent Seven and other upcoming events visit bryanculturalseries.org.

Towne Bank of Currituck, OBX Chevrolet Buick, Ramada Plaza Hotel of Kill Devil Hills, and Hilton Garden Inn of Kitty Hawk provide substantial support for this cultural offering of events.

The Bryan Cultural Series is a non-profit organization formed in 2012.  The board of directors is composed of nine community leaders dedicated to offering a series of high-quality cultural events.  These events will include a variety of visual, literary, and performing arts.  The board strives to glean from the talent that has attained regional as well as national recognition to maintain a high standard.

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