This Scribe has expressed aloud his ambition to Write for Hollywood, or Bollywood, or Gollywood, whichever comes first. So the Christmas break provided a relaxing sojourn to the vast wonderland of the mind -- helped by the visual medium of movie and great film-director and producer.
I surfed the Net for a generous soul to give me a sample of a script of a good movie, but all I could get hold of after three days of riding the high plains and deep lowlands of cowboy country and city junglescape were synopses and movie reviews. The Graduate, High Noon, Gone With The Wind --- but no script.
I have bnow a story outline.
I have now a willing spirit.
But NO SCRIPT to model on.
No, Shakespearen or other playwrights' scripts are not "it".
So in the light of this being a season of goodwill and charity, Desi prays:
Somewhere out there is a Soul and Spirit converging with Desi's present journey aimed ta breaking Peter Jackson's monopoly on the big screen, okay-lah, settle for breaking Zhang Yimou's rice-bowl will do! -- please "borrow" me a film-script for the next 30 days to help a traveller along, can?
A Bribe: Barrels of Haridas' tehtarik before the H2O runs out in FuRong -- it always nearly does come Chinese New Year because all the folks come back from the boondocks or D'Jungle, eating like starved pigs as if there is no more New Year after 2006....
But was I plesantly surprised to spy a familiar name as I googled and found a Film Review by Daniel Chan.
I don't know if this was the same Daniel who more than ably conducted ScreenAsia's Writing for Hollywood one-day workshop downtown Big, Bad Wolfish Koala Lumpur which I attended a couple of months ago.
I "reprise" his review so that some of mGf will see some magic of the celluloid medium and moved to respond to gift Desi a piece of Yul Brynner's action. Also, now you understand why this writer's fave number is SE7EN.
ENJOY Daniel Chan's offering. (I hope he does not "court" me for CopyLeft infringements. Wella, I take my bet from one artiste's Christmas charity to anyother artiste; also it's the Season to be ...Knotty, so spring that lasso, mGf!
MOVIES: The magnificent sevens
by Daniel Chan
Dec 21:
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HAPPINESS is browsing at the friendly neighbourhood video store and coming across a new release of an old movie you first enjoyed decades ago but have not been able to watch it again since.
That was certainly the case for this writer earlier this month when paying RM16.90 for a VCD of 1966’s Return Of The Seven, the first of the three sequels to 1960’s unforgettable The Magnificent Seven (which was inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film Seven Samurai).
In Return Of The Seven, Russian-born Yul Brynner was the only one from the original cast to be back, reprising as gunfighter Chris Adams who again has to round-up a team to help protect the same Mexican peasant village from another gang of marauding bandits.
If you recall, only three of the original seven hired guns survived at the end of The Magnificent Seven, the other two being Chris’ sidekick Vin (Steve McQueen) and Chico (German-born Horst Buchholz).
In Press interviews at the time of the release of Return Of The Seven, Brynner said he tried persuading McQueen to return as Vin but McQueen wasn’t interested (and was busy with 1966’s The Sand Pebbles which garnered McQueen his sole Oscar nod for Best Actor).
Too bad as a Brynner-McQueen reteaming would have energised Return Of The Seven, directed by Burt Kennedy, which has its exciting moments but simply cannot match the majesty and retrospective star-power of The Magnificent Seven (directed by John Sturges).
Brynner was at the time the only big name star in The Magnificent Seven which served as a springboard to stardom for McQueen, Buchholz, also Charles Bronson, James Coburn and Robert Vaughn, while Brad Dexter was the only one who failed to hit the big time.
And compared to the three sequels, Brynner’s first six co-stars in the 1960 original all enjoyed much more in-depth characterisation, with McQueen a scene-stealer through his subtle antics (which apparently angered Brynner at times), Buchholz amazingly believable as a spunky Mexican (a role which McQueen actually coveted but did not get), Bronson the strong silent type whom the Mexican peasant children find the most approachable, Coburn the deadly knife-thrower, Vaughn a much-feared gunslinger who unknown to the others has lost his nerves, and Dexter who joined up with the belief that there was gold to be found. Of course, Brynner stands out as the cool, calm and commanding leader of the pack.
Return Of The Seven had Robert Fuller playing Vin, and Spanish-born Julian Mateos as Chico, and both lacked the charisma of McQueen and Buchholz, while rounding off the second team were Warren Oates (meant as the equivalent to Coburn), Claude Akins (physically remindful of Bronson), Jordan Christopher, and Portuguese-born Virgilio Teixeira.
One nice bit of continuity was that Chico has since married village girl Petra, with Spanish-born Elisa Montes in the role (in the 1960 film, Petra was played by Mexican-born Rosenda Monteros).
And just like what happened in The Magnificent Seven, not all members of the new team in Return Of The Seven survive the final shootout, although one senses that Chris, Vin and Chico will not die.
The local video release of Return Of The Seven surely gives hope that soon there will be VCDs of the other two sequels, 1969’s Guns Of The Magnificent Seven, and 1972’s The Magnificent Seven Ride!
Guns Of The Magnificent Seven, directed by Paul Wendkos, was the second best of the four films in the series, and had Chris (now played by George Kennedy) leading an entirely new team to free a Mexican revolutionary from a fortress, and there was fairly good casting of the new members, comprising Monte Markham, veteran James Whitmore, Joe Don Baker, newcomer Scott Thomas, Hispanic-American Reni Santoni, and African-American Bernie Casey.
The Magnificent Seven Ride! directed by George McCowan, had newly-married Chris (played by Lee Van Cleef) now a US marshall and when his bride (Mariette Hartley) is kidnapped by bandits, he goes to her rescue by recruiting a new team comprising Mexican-born Pedro Armendariz Jr, Ralph Waite, Michael Callan, Luke Askew, Ed Lauter, and William Lucking. But this fourth outing was disappointing, and perhaps why this film franchise ended - and 26 years would pass before it was resusticated as a (shortlived) TV series.
Although all three sequels were several notches below the 1960 original, the wonderful thing was that the sequels retain the terrific 1960 Oscar-
nominated musical score by Elmer Bernstein.
DESIDERATA: YOu want membership among The Magnificent SE7EN?
Beg, steal or borrow "me" a movie script, in Chinoserie also can.
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