|
When
ruthless bandit leader Calvera and his forty men raid the Mexican village of
Ixcatlan for food and goods, the villagers, used to Calvera's harvest-time
plundering, keep quiet with the exception of one outraged farmer, whom
Calvera summarily shoots. After the banditos leave, the villagers,
barely able to survive on what remains but unable to fight the banditos,
seek the advice of the old man, a village elder, who tells them to buy guns
at the border and learn how to use them.
When the three-man delegation from Ixcatlan led
by Hilario arrives at a border town to buy guns, they are awed by
gunslingers Chris and Vin, who offer to drive a carriage carrying the body
of an Indian through town when the funeral director refuses to transport it
for fear of the bigoted citizens’ reprisals. After witnessing Chris
and Vin easily outdrawing the angered townsmen as they make their way to the
graveyard, the delegation asks Chris to buy guns for them, explaining that
the Mexican rurales cannot guard the village from Calvera's repeated
plundering. Chris instead offers to round up a team of gunmen, even
though the villagers can only afford to pay $20 pay for six weeks’ work.
As word spreads, young, impetuous Chico, inspired by Vin and Chris’s
triumphant carriage ride, asks for the job, but is humiliated when he fails
Chris' test to determine if Chico is a quick draw.
Soon after, jovial gold hunter Harry Luck,
assuming that there must be some hidden treasure which the other gunslingers
will split, joins the team, as well as Vin and the brawny war veteran
O'Reilly. The next day, Chris watches as expert knife-thrower and
gunslinger Britt easily wins a draw with a deadly knife throw and considers
him for the team. At a bar that night, an enraged Chico holds Chris at
gunpoint and orders him to draw, but Chris quietly refuses the challenge
until the boy collapses from drunkenness. Soon after Britt joins the
group, the well-dressed but destitute Lee offers his services in attempt to
regain his nerve, which he has lost while on the run from his enemies.
Days later, as the delegation, joined by the six
gunslingers, rides toward Ixcatlan, they notice Chico following; Chris,
softened by the young man's resolve, finally motions for him to join them.
When they are greeted with silence as they enter the village, Chris accepts
the villagers' fearful reluctance, but Chico angrily rages at them for their
cowardice.
The next day, the seven attend a town
celebration and notice that all the village women are missing. Soon
after, Chris learns that three of Calvera's men are nearby and sends Britt
and Lee to bring the men back alive. However, Chico ruins the plan by
shooting one of the banditos, forcing Britt to kill the second and third
men, who were fast escaping on horseback. When an amazed Chico
compliments him on his long-distance shot, an irritated Britt tells him that
it was "...the worst. I was aiming for the horse."
Later at the village, Chris observes that
Calvera probably sent the men ahead to scout for the coming raid and
reassures the villagers that they will have time to train before Calvera’s
men arrive in force. Over several days, the seven use the dead men’s
weapons to coach the farmers in how to shoot.
One afternoon, Chico catches the strident young
Petra, who is spying on him as he tests his bullfighting skills against a
tame farm animal, and learns that the villagers have hidden their women for
fear of the gunslingers raping them. After warning the village men
that the women have more to fear from Calvera than from the gunslingers,
Chris orders Chico to bring the women back. That night Petra and
others petulantly serve the men food but, when the seven learn the village
is starving on a few meager beans, they give their servings away.
The next day, after the boys on guard signal
that the enemy is approaching, Chris, Britt and Vin stand in the middle of
town to meet Calvera, who does not flinch at finding gunslingers there.
Instead, he offers to share the village spoils with the seven in exchange
for standing down but, when Chris orders him to "ride on," a gunfight
erupts. Unprepared for the onslaught, Calvera and his men try to
escape but are trapped by newly built nets and rock walls erected by the
villagers, thus enabling the villagers and gunslingers to pick off many of
the banditos.
That night, as the mild-mannered Sotero and
other villagers toast the seven on their success, shots interrupt the
jubilant occasion, forcing Chris to send O'Reilly, Vin and Sotero to track
the sharpshooters. While searching for the men, Sotero tells Vin that
he is committed to protecting his family, and Vin openly envies Sotero’s
bond with his family, which neither he nor the other six have.
Meanwhile, disobeying her father's orders
against talking to the gunslingers, a love-struck Petra begs Chico to be
careful. Later that night, Chico, wanting to prove himself to the
others, touts the gunslinger lifestyle as the stuff of legends. While
Chris reminds them, as hired gunmen, they are beholden to no one, Vin
laments that he has no family and Lee adds that they have no enemies,
because they are dead. When Lee awakens screaming from a nightmare
about his enemies, two villagers reassure him that "only the dead are
without fear."
Meanwhile, three young boys adopt the
Mexican-Irish O'Reilly, promising that they will avenge his death and put
flowers on his grave if he should die in battle. Harry is convinced
that the villagers must be hiding ancient treasure, which is rumored to be
buried in the nearby mountains. Believing that this is the real reason
for Calvera’s return, Harry tries to entreat the village men into gambling.
Soon
after, Chico, hiding his face under a sombrero, infiltrates the Calvera camp
and surprises the six when he reports back that Calvera will attack soon
because his men are starving. The villagers fight among themselves
about whether to surrender to save their families, while Chris argues with
his men about their chance of success.
Later, Chico boasts to Petra about his new life
as a roving gunslinger, but his resolve quickly weakens as she kisses him.
That evening, after Chris and his men find the
Calvera camp empty when they attempt to steal their horses, the seven return
to the village and are immediately surrounded by Calvera's men, who have
been tipped off by the cowardly Sotero. Although he could easily kill
them, Calvera decides to spare their lives to avoid alerting the United
States police to his operation. After publicly ordering them to leave
their guns, Calvera quietly offers to return the weapons once the seven are
out of town and asks why they became involved with the villagers, unable to
believe the gunslingers would have any motivation other than money. As
he lays down his gun, Vin cryptically explains with a joke: When
someone asked a man why he threw himself into a prickly pear cactus, the man
simply replied that it "seemed to be a good idea at the time." Before
the seven leave, O'Reilly explains to his boys that they should respect
their fathers, who are brave to carry the burden of family responsibility,
something O'Reilly has never had the courage to do.
That night, after the seven are escorted out of
town and given their guns, Chico explodes in anger about the villagers’
betrayal, but Chris reminds him that his hatred stems from being the son of
just such a Mexican villager.
The next day, after Harry, tired of fighting
without the hope of riches, leaves the group, the remaining six ride into
town and begin a shootout with the banditos. Wounded, Vin drags
himself into a store, while Harry, having changed his mind, rides into town
and is shot. Following Vin, Chris drags Harry into the store, where he
soothes the dying man with a story of imaginary riches. Meanwhile, Lee
finally draws and shoots four of Calvera's men, but is then killed.
Spurred by the seven's sacrifice, the villagers, including the women, come
out of hiding and beat Calvera's men with every chair and stick available.
Meanwhile, Chris wounds Calvera, who, with his
dying breath, continues to express his disbelief that the seven had any
reason to return. After Britt takes out four banditos with perfectly
aimed shots, he dies from a wound sustained in the battle. O'Reilly's
boys find their hero, who begs them to emulate their fathers, then dies from
a wound suffered before their young eyes.
By the end of the battle, the remaining banditos
are finally driven from town, but the old man sagely announces to those
remaining of the seven, Chris, Vin and Chico, that only the farmers have
won. As they ride out of town, the astute Chris turns to Chico, says
"Adios," and watches as Chico returns to Petra, for whom he lays down his
holster. As they pause to look back on the village, Chris tells Vin
that the old man was right: only the farmers have won—not the
gunslingers, who will always lose. |
_01.jpg)
