The Magnificent Seven : Movie Review

Here we have it folks, another remake of an old classic, which in itself was a remake and reinterpretation of an even older, classic movie.The new edition of 'The Magnificent Seven', directed by Antoine Fuqua, follows the line similar to that of the 1960 film which was directed by John Sturges and had an even more impressive star cast, including Yul Brynner, James Coburn and Steve McQueen.

Denzel Washington plays bounty hunter and avenger, Sam Chisolm who is approached by two residents of an old west town called Rose Creek. Their town had been seized by greedy industrialist, Bartholomew Bogue ( played by Peter Sarsgaard), and they were desperate to find someone to liberate them. Taken in by their resolve and the pay offered, Sam agrees to take up the job and sets about recruiting some of the best guns in the West.

He comes across hustler and fast-talking quick-shooter Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt) who he believes has his heart in the right place and would make a valuable ally. Chisolm also recruits the Mexican, Vasquez, a man who he felt would be better recruited to their cause than to collect the bounty on him.
Vasquez and Faraday are sent off to find and recruit an acquaintance of Chisolm, a legendary sniper by the name of Goodnight Robicheaux ( Ethan Hawke). Goodnight is found to be riding with a partner named Billy Rocks ( Byung-hun Lee) who is faster with a knife than with a gun and is his trusted friend, where Goodnight goes, Billy comes too. With that settled, the four of them set off to regroup with Chisolm and the two townsfolk, Emma (Haley Bennett) and Teddy (Luke Grimes).

After a brief conversation with another legend of the West, Jack Thorne ( Vincent D'Onofrio) who does join them soon after, they begin their ride to the town of Rose Creek. On their way, they are joined by a solo apache Indian, Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier), and that completes all seven of this group of guns for hire, on a noble quest to liberate a small town from a violent and merciless industrialist.

Following the story line of the 1960 film, the 7 have an extremely short amount of time to arm and ready a village of farmers and handymen, for a gunfight relatable to a battle of two small armies. Many challenges ensue, with light moments of humor to keep it from getting a tale too dark.

The plot is no great thriller, and especially not to those who have seen the 1960s classic. But there were many failings in this modern remake. Not all 7 of the characters get enough screen time to establish significant depth to their personality or to build a connect with the viewers. While the landscaping and the riding shots and the gun battles made good use of modern cinematography, it lacked the artistic quality of the old westerns. There was a constant flow of machismo cliches, much like the old film, but not all of them were good enough to bear through without wincing. The soundtrack is however, quite a good fit, with no room for complaints.

But, where the film truly does fall flat, especially in comparison to the 1960 classic, is the fact that the Antagonist of the story is not at all interesting or intriguing or even intimidating. In the old one, the cliche character of Calvera was brought to life by the brilliant job done by Eli Wallach. But Peter Sarsgaard's Bogue was one of the dullest villains, probably in the history of Westerns as a genre of film. For that chief reason, amongst the others, I'd rate this movie 3 out of 8 pieces of cornbread.

Hope you liked my review, feel free to comment, share and subscribe. Thanks for reading!