The Magnificent Seven (2016)

Movie Info

We’re the seven…and we’re magnificent!

Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) wants the town of Rose Creek, and he gets what he wants.  Threatening to evict the farmers and buy their land for next to nothing, Bogue is willing to use violence to do it.  A widow named Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) and Teddy Q. (Luke Grimes) set out to find men who will help them stop Bogue, and the town is willing to sacrifice everything to save Rose Creek.  With Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), Joshua Faraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier), and Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio) defending Rose Creek, the town might just have a chance!

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, The Magnificent Seven is a Western action-adventure film.  The film is a remake of the 1960 John Sturges Western which was a remake of the 1954 Akira Kurosawa film Seven Samurai.  The film was released to mixed reviews but a strong box office.

Yeah…Yul who?

Seven Samurai is one of my favorite films.  Despite this, I think The Magnificent Seven is a worthy adaptation of the film.  With another version of this film coming around, I didn’t have much hope.  I didn’t find parts of this film entertaining, but it also felt really unnecessary.

The story doesn’t really do much new, but fortunately, the story is strong enough that it doesn’t need to.  The movie does a decent job balancing the stories of the seven, but the most interesting of the group are the last added (Red Harvest and Jack Horne), and they feel the “newest” additions to the film.  If you’ve seen other versions of this story, it plays out relatively the same with some shocks and some tragedies…but if you haven’t seen any version, you might not expect how the ending plays.

The cast is exactly what you’d expect for a 2016 version of the film.  It has box office leads but also plays with these leads to have you questioning who will survive the film.  While Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, and Ethan Hawke play their typical characters, you’ll never be sure what you’ll get from Vincent D’Onofrio.  I also really like what Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Martin Sensmeier bring to the story since they aren’t classic “leads”.  In a relatively male driven story, Haley Bennett plays the female with the biggest role and Peter Sarsgaard always excels as a slimy character.

I want to go back to Pawnee

The movie looks great, but I always favor Westerns in visuals just due to their scope.  It was shot in multiple locations from Louisiana to Colorado to Mexico, but it does have a classic Western feel to the look and style.  All of the versions of the story always have that great showdown moment where tensions raise, and this version of The Magnificent Seven is no different.

I don’t really have much of a problem with this movie.  It is a solid Western action (a little slow), but it is a story that has been told before and has been told better.  The problem I always have with movies like this is that it could sour “new” viewers to the older versions of the film and not allow them to appreciate them for the originality they possess.  If you see The Magnificent Seven, try to see what came before it first, but if not make an effort to seek it out afterwards.

Related Links:

The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Seven Samurai (1954)