One of the classics, The Magnificent Seven is very famous, and the filming locations are breathtaking. Fans of the movie often search for the locations of its filming. The movie is famous for many reasons. It features a very legendary and remarkable cast of young actors, each of whom filled their character with distinctive characteristics. The screenplay of the movie was actually being rewritten and revised, but the end result was a tremendously enjoyable film. One of the most famous scores in Cinema is in the movie, it is Elmer Bernstein’s score, and it was later used in Marlboro cigarette ads too!
The success of The Magnificent Seven spawned a slew of sequels. Along with sequels in the form of movies, the film was also adapted into a television series, which aired from 1998 to 2000. Moreover, the latest remake was made in 2016. The movie also won an Academy Award for The Best Score. Now, let us get into the details of the filming locations of The Magnificent Seven (1960)!
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What Is The Magnificent Seven (1960) About?
Calvera’s Bandidos assault Mexican villages on a regular basis, leaving just enough food to survive after another arduous harvest season. After selling the villagers’ final ‘treasures,’ Hilario and his neighbors decide to deputize a trio to buy guns so they can fight back.
They cross the border into the United States and encounter firearms hero Chris Larabee Adams, who is always challenged by would-be champions like young Chico. He considers their budget to be insufficient and meaningless without shooter abilities, so he advises they recruit men instead. Chris is convinced to put together a team for the pittance, which surprisingly amounts to seven people in need of money, including the self-invited Chico, whose farm boy murders prove to be just as helpful.
Where Is The Magnificent Seven (1960) Filmed?
Most of the filming took place in Mexico, North America. The sandy desert plains immortalized in this masterpiece of a movie are actually in Mexico. The filming began on 1st March 1960. The film features a number of places from across the border, most notably in the states of Sonora. It is immediately south of Arizona, and Morelos, near Mexico City.
We see many of the frontier landscapes depict the raw reality of the region and its burned wilds and huge scrublands. However, some scenes were shot on specially constructed sets for the movie as well. This setup includes a period at Mexico’s ‘Churubusco Studios’. We have seen this studio being used in David Lynch’s ‘Dune’ and the very famous movie ‘Romeo+Juliet’, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio to represent similarly sun-baked landscapes scenarios.
You must have heard about Arizona’s Old Tucson studios if you like searching about filming locations. It is a very famous studio, and a lot of famous films have been shot over there. Similarly, internal shots of The Magnificent Seven were shot in this studio. The studio is called ‘Hollywood in the Desert’ as it flourished year after year during the Western boom. Each new production started adding additional saloons, cantinas, and county prisons to the burned landscape we have grown so habitual seeing onscreen. The Magnificent Seven is no doubt responsible for transforming this studio from a ghost town to Tinseltown!
Was There Any Censor Problem During The Filming Of The Magnificent Seven?
Well, yes! Censors appear to be a concern regardless of which country is picked for location shooting. Filming was put on hold for a while as Mexican censors demanded that the peasants in The Magnificent Seven wear clean clothes, despite the fact that they were farmers and supposed to be seen wearing little dirty clothes. As a result, dozens of intentionally soiled costumes had to be professionally cleaned.
The same censors demanded that the script be changed to portray the Mexicans in the film in a more favorable manner. We still see the same pattern around countries where Government puts a ban on films that show reality. If the scenes are not in their favor, consider the film banned and thrashed!
In the case of The Magnificent Seven, all of these issues arose from the 1954 filming of Vera Cruz in Mexico, in which the Mexican people were horribly portrayed. The people there were visibly upset, which resulted in the Government making strict rules and censorship on how the Mexicans should be portrayed in movies.
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