--- title: Magnificent Seven Remake: Original Wasn't Original Either description: The new Denzel Washington film is remake of a 1960 movie, which was itself a remake of an earlier Japanese film. Read TIME's original review canonical: https://time.com/4495410/magnificent-seven-1960-review/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-22T15:00:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:37:49.241Z article:section: History og:title: The Original 'The Magnificent Seven' Wasn't Actually Original Either og:description: The new Denzel Washington film is remake of a 1960 movie, which was itself a remake of an earlier Japanese film og:url: https://time.com/4495410/magnificent-seven-1960-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b717e35a39eb60f/6988a63cbc6cfccd603de96d/seven.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Magnificent Seven og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Original 'The Magnificent Seven' Wasn't Actually Original Either twitter:description: The new Denzel Washington film is remake of a 1960 movie, which was itself a remake of an earlier Japanese film twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b717e35a39eb60f/6988a63cbc6cfccd603de96d/seven.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Original _The Magnificent Seven_ Wasn't Actually Original Either  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 22, 2016 3:00 PM UTC  The principle cast in a publicity still for 'The Magnificent Seven', directed by John Sturges, 1960. The principle cast in a publicity still for 'The Magnificent Seven', directed by John Sturges, 1960.Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 22, 2016 3:00 PM UTC The [new version](http://time.com/4300573/the-magnificent-seven-trailer/) of _The Magnificent Seven_ arrives in theaters Friday, with Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Byung-Hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Martin Sensmeier filling the saddles of the seven cowboys who made the 1960 movie of the same name a Western classic. The[ 1960 version](http://time.com/vault/issue/1960-12-12/page/98/) was, per TIME’s critic, the best movie in that genre to be released in that year: --- > “” --- [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) But it wasn’t as good as the _original_ original—the 1954 Japanese film that was released in the U.S. in 1956, originally under the title _The Magnificent Seven_. As _Seven Samurai_, the English title it’s known by today, it is not just a great example of one genre in one year, but rather a great movie, period. [TIME’s 1956 review](http://time.com/vault/issue/1956-12-10/page/104/) explained why: --- > “” --- Not that the film was perfect: “In _The Magnificent Seven_, as in _Rashomon_, Kurosawa has provided a feast of impressions, but has skimped on some of the more essential vitamins,” the critic noted. “The characters are clearly written and admirably played, especially the leader of the Samurai (Takashi Shimura). But only rarely does the story seem to drop through the floor of everyday reality into the moral hell that war really is.” But either of them, and likely the new version too, could still be proud to be better than yet _another_ version of the story: the 1966 sequel, _Return of the Seven_, which TIME [called](http://time.com/vault/issue/1966-10-28/page/115/) a “ludicrous reprise” of the subject matter. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4495410/magnificent-seven-1960-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4495410/magnificent-seven-1960-review/"},"headline":"The Original The Magnificent Seven Wasn't Actually Original Either","datePublished":"2016-09-22T15:00:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:37:49.241Z","description":"The new Denzel Washington film is remake of a 1960 movie, which was itself a remake of an earlier Japanese film. 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