The latest re-make of The Magnificent Seven(Sony) is "Rated PG-13 for extended and intense sequences of Western violence, and for historical smoking, some language and suggestive material.”
“Historical smoking” is an MPAA label applied to a few youth-rated movies with biographical elements: Emperor(2013), The Imitation Game (2014) andThe Monuments Men (2014).
But the only historical reference in this Western shot in Louisiana is film history. It's a retread of The Magnificent Seven (1960), itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954), set in 16th Century Japan.
The Magnificent Seven (2016) ignores Yul Brynner's real-life act of courage.
Yul Brynner smoked a cigar in the 1960 version of The Magnificent Seven. He quit smoking later that decade. After Brynner's 1985 death from lung cancer, he appeared in a haunting posthumous anti-smoking public service announcement for the American Cancer Society:
YUL BRYNNER: Now that I'm gone, I tell you: Don't smoke, whatever you do, just don't smoke...If I could take back that smoking, we wouldn't be talking about any cancer. I'm convinced of that.
That’s real history and genuine courage.
Instead, Sony's fantasy rates tobacco for kids — with eleven actors smoking and more than 100 tobacco incidents. View this PG-13 movie's huge tobacco footprint here.
"Historical smoking"? Sony should worry about our kids' future.
The 1960 original had six smoking characters and about 65 tobacco incidents on screen. The 2016 remake has eleven smoking characters (including background extras), more than 125 tobacco incidents — twice as much tobacco as in 1960 — and delivered nearly four times as many tobacco impressions (1.5 billion) as the 1960 version (430 million, estimated) to domestic moviegoers of all ages.
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Sources: Los Angeles Times (1986); The New York Times (2005)