John Sturges made the two films that taught American cinema how to assemble a team. The Magnificent Seven, adapted from Seven Samurai, and The Great Escape both spend their first act recruiting and their second on preparation, and every heist and mission film since has used that shape.
Bad Day at Black Rock is the tighter achievement, a one-armed veteran arriving in a town with a secret, staged in widescreen with almost no wasted movement.
He worked repeatedly with Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn, and largely built their screen personas in the process.
John SturgesThe Magnificent Seven (1960) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Kurosawa's Seven Samurai relocated to the Mexican border, shortened by an hour, and improved in one specific way. Every gunman gets an introduction that is also an…
John Sturges1976 John Sturges WWII thriller with Michael Caine as a German paratrooper colonel sent to kidnap Churchill from rural England. The Eagle Has Landed is John Sturges's 1976 British WWII thriller adapting Jack Higgins's 1975 novel.
John SturgesJohn Sturges's perfect ensemble war film. Steve McQueen and the legendary cast.
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