As a big fan of Westerns, I'm always complaining about how hard it is to watch many of the classics online. That might change though as Amazon MGM is looking to reinvigorate some of its older properties and that includes releasing The Magnificent Seven along with two of its sequels.
On Sunday, June 1, Amazon added a big list of hit movies to Prime Video including Brokeback Mountain, 12 Angry Men and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (the list is long and interesting so I'll copy and paste it at the bottom of this article).
(This is in the US, with Prime Video UK not having released a full list of its June uploads at the time of writing).
To me, the stand-out is The Magnificent Seven, not just because it's a legendary movie which everyone needs to see, but because it's fundamental in Amazon's schedule going forward.
Hailing from 1960 and loosely a remake of noted Western fan Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven is about seven cowboys who put aside their own personal drives or plans to protect a village of farmers from an outlaw who's shaking them down.
While it wasn't a smash-hit in the US at the time, The Magnificent Seven has gone down in history as one of the most famous Westerns of all time, always showing up on AFI lists and round-ups of the genre. According to Wikipedia, it's the second-most-shown movie on American TV of all time after The Wizard of Oz, but take that with a pinch of salt since the reference link is broken.
It oozes "cool" and does a good job of exploring and deconstructing the morality of the archetypal cowboy and its mythical status. It also makes you empathize with the characters a staggering amount given that there are seven of them.
Hit Westerns were guaranteed a forgettable sequel and The Magnificent Seven managed to get three (plus a despised TV version, plus a 2016 remake). The first two of these, The Return of the Seven from 1966 and Guns of the Magnificent Seven from 1969, were also added to Prime Video.
Of these two only the first is worth a watch; it contains the only returning character of any of them (Yul Brynner as the leader of the band) and a similar premise, though it's certainly a retread of the first. After that, things went off the deep end and I wouldn't recommend watching Guns or beyond.
Another reason to watch The Magnificent Seven is that it's getting another remake (which is ironic given that it itself is one). In 2023 Amazon confirmed that it was working to reboot a list of its IPs including, of course, Mag 7.
The full list includes Stargate, Robocop and Pink Panther, and they straddle film and TV, but apparently the seven cowboys will be turned into another TV show.
It's not known when The Magnificent Seven TV show will hit screens, but three of said reboots, based on Creed, Barbershop and Legally Blonde, were recently confirmed by Amazon. And Prime Video's list of movie uploads includes the originals of another franchise that's getting a reboot: The Thomas Crowne Affair.
In the meantime, I'd recommend watching the original if you haven't already. The remake is on Prime Video already if you haven't seen the Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke 2016 version and while it's not quite as good as the original, it's still decent.
Now as promised, here's a full list of everything added to Prime Video on Sunday, June 1, according to Amazon's own website.
- 12 Angry Men (1957)
- Annie (2014)
- At First Sight (1999)
- Bad Teacher (2011)
- Benny & Joon (1993)
- Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)
- Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020)
- Billy Madison (1995)
- Bloodsport (1998)
- Brokeback Mountain (2006)
- Capote (2006)
- Chips (2017)
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
- Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
- Daddy Day Care (2003)
- Dead Man Walking (1995)
- Fled (1996)
- Godzilla (2014)
- Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969)
- Half Baked (1998)
- Happy Feet (2006)
- Happy Feet Two (2001)
- Heartbreakers (2001)
- Letters From Iwo Jima (2007)
- Life (1999)
- Masters of the Universe (1987)
- Midnight Cowboy (1969)
- Mississippi Burning (1989)
- Moneyball (2011)
- Nanny McPhee (2006)
- Oblivion (2013)
- Platoon (1987)
- Pixels (2015)
- Red Corner (1997)
- Return of the Seven (1966)
- Rings (2017)
- Road House (1989)
- Ronin (1998)
- Serenity (2005)
- Stargate (1994)
- Some Like It Hot (1959)
- The Birdcage (1996)
- The Brothers (2001)
- The Greatest Showman (2017)
- The Magnificent Seven (1960)
- The Perfect Guy (2015)
- The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
- The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
- The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)
- Twins (1988)
- Valkyrie (2008)
- White
- Chicks (2004)
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