Seven out of ten this time around
MAGNIFICENT is perhaps too complimentary a term to describe The Magnificent Seven, a remake of the muchloved 1960 western starring Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen (itself an adaptation of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 classic Seven Samurai).
Nor could you call this new version mediocre. It’s too capably made and entertainingly performed for that. So, let’s split the difference and use another M-word: moderately entertaining.
The story of this Magnificent Seven is essentially the same as the original’s — an Old West frontier town bothered by bad guys is protected by a rag-tag band of noble ne’er-do-wells — but with a few 21st century updates.
The main difference this time around is the multicultural make-up of the title team. For one thing, Denzel Washington is leading the charge as bounty hunter Sam Chisholm, who is drawn to defend the people of Rose Creek from ruthless bandits partly because it’s the right thing to do and partly for more personal reasons.
“I’ve been offered a lot for my work but never everything,” he says when he’s approached by desperate widow Emma Cullen (feisty Haley Bennett) whose husband was gunned down by cold-blooded robber baron Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard, looking and acting like greed has corroded his soul).
But Chisholm can’t take on Bogue and his army of hired goons alone, so en route to Rose Creek he assembles six comrades to stand by his side.
First to sign up is Faraday (Chris Pratt), quick on the draw and quick with a quip. Then there’s the wonderfully named Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), a sharpshooter haunted by his Civil War bloodshed, and his partner Billy Rocks (Korean superstar Byung-Hun Lee), a whiz with his knives.
Bearish mountain man Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio), “Texican” outlaw Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier), a Native American archer, round out the gang.
It’s a bit of an issue that The Magnificent Seven don’t make their motivations for joining the fight all that clear.
But, let’s face it, who wouldn’t follow Denzel Washington into battle, especially when he’s as cool and charismatic as he is here?
And the movie makes up for it somewhat with some good-natured in-fighting among the gang, quickly and smartly creating a believable camaraderie among these guys.
So, we’re invested in this magnificent seven by the time Bogue’s baddies, armed with a high-powered machine-gun, roll back into town, making the lead-up to the climactic showdown suitably tense.
Despite a few modern trappings, The Magnificent Seven is very much an oldschool western, one that will appeal to fans of straightshooting and slightly tonguein-cheek macho swagger.