The Magnificent Seven Review

(Poster Source: Wikipedia)

Westerns desperately need a comeback, given the fact that they are rather few in numbers these days. It has been a long-lost genre for quite some time, although there have been some moderate successes in True Grit, Rango, and Django Unchained.

Even so, there remains to be a single film that would provide a resurgence for the once-popular genre. Hollywood hopes to spark this with the release of The Magnificent Seven, a remake of the 1960 original. (Incidentally enough, though, the original film was based on the Japanese classic Seven Samurai.)

Perhaps fearing that the film would not garner box office returns based on its story, Sony hired stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, and others to head up the film’s cast. Director Antoine Fuqua, known for Training Day and Olympus Has Fallen, was also brought in to helm the project. The producers likely hoped that his experience with filming action would carry over to this gunplay-laden Western.

And on that note, The Magnificent Seven focuses on the conflict between a group of greedy industrials and the residents of a mining settlement called Rose Creek. Lead by a corrupt, violent man named Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), these evil men kill various people in the town square as Bogue reveals his intentions to take the land from them.

In an act of desperation, a woman named Emma Cullen, who was widowed in the aforementioned flurry of death, searches for potential men to defend the town. Eventually, an ethnically-diverse group of seven men comes together to fight against Bogue and his men.

This simple premise could have made for an excellent, effortlessly entertaining Western flick no matter when production would have taken place. We already have past proof that the original film generally worked with audiences and critics, so naturally, a remake also had that potential to succeed.

But the disappointing matter is that The Magnificent Seven was much less interesting to me than I would have liked.

Don’t get me wrong, for this is not a bad film by any means. The deal-breaking issue is simply that this film, which honestly should have focused entirely on its characters, seems to forget the importance of developing the characters. The screenplay occasionally gives us glimpses of who they are, lessons they are learning, and experiences they have gone through in the past, but these expository bits are kept to a minimum.

While minimalistic exposition can be good for a story, this was a detriment to my experience with The Magnificent Seven since I felt no real sympathy for the titular troupe.

When exposition is used in a script, generally it can either be done with direct dialogue, flashbacks, or visual storytelling (which is my personal preference). The screenplay here has snippets of each of these, but ultimately not enough to suitably serve the plot. This goes for characters both heroic and villainous, although Haley Bennett’s role receives a solid amount of attention from the story.

On that note, though, it is worth mentioning that the director Antoine Fuqua and this film’s producers sought for a diverse cast.

Leading man Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Lee Byung-hun, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Martin Sensmeier all play the roles of the Magnificent Seven, and they are certainly far from the weakest points of the picture. Each provides a solid amount of entertainment value to the picture, and they all have their special moment in the action sequences as well.

As I mentioned, Haley Bennett (who looks scarily similar to Jennifer Lawrence to me) also does a great job here, standing out as one of the film’s strongest characters. This stems from her assured physical presence juxtaposed against a feminine personality, coming together to present a realistic, inspiring heroine.

(Photo Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

The weak aspect of the cast is that most of their characters are hollow representations of character tropes and not much else. Such is especially seen in the fact that the cast is an underwhelming amalgamation of races and cultures: you get the African-American, drunk and “suave” white man, another white man with PTSD, a portly white man, a Mexican, a Native American, and an Asian.

Like I said, it’s a great thing when films have ensembles of characters like this one does, but the story does very little to make these characters interesting.

Aside from that, though, The Magnificent Seven deserves some merit for its technical presentation. This film should be noted for its musical score alone, considering that it features the final film compositions of James Horner. The pieces themselves may not be that memorable, to be quite honest, but at least they bolster the action scenes when greater excitement is needed.

But overall, I enjoyed the action sequences for the most part.

For one thing, Fuqua did well to not shy away from the realistic nature of the violence while not showing an overbearing amount of blood and gore. It’s just enough to infuse the film with energy and intensity.

The grander shootouts, especially the climactic skirmish at Rose Creek, are also fast, crisply-edited, and impressively framed. The framing is especially worth praising since there was always room for the audience to catch what was taking place on screen. At the same time, close-ups and tight angles were implemented to create a sense of panic during certain parts of the action. I felt this the strongest when a certain deadly weapon is introduced during the second half of the climax.

Yet, one critical issue kept nagging at me during the majority of the gunfights: the heroes almost always hit their enemies. To explain further, a lot of the action choreography shows the Magnificent Seven twisting, turning, rapidly-aiming and making acrobatic moves without missing their targets.

Granted, such is not uncommon in Hollywood action films, for oftentimes action choreography showcases a hero taking out a large number of enemies, coming out of the encounter alive. But I suppose the difference here is that the heroes somehow possess the superhuman ability to almost effortlessly annihilate an entire army of hired guns. It's entertaining, but this is still in stark contrast to the film’s realistic tone.

Within reason, a film with this sort of vibe would show its characters facing peril and danger at nearly every second of the action. But unfortunately, the film undercuts such opportunities for tension with the frenetic gunplay; therefore, the action is uninteresting regardless of the technical accomplishments.

(Photo Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

So all in all, despite the fact that The Magnificent Seven bolsters a strong cast, entertainment value, and decent action scenes, this was not how I wanted the Western genre to be revitalized.

But the good news about its initial box office returns cannot be ignored, for if The Magnificent Seven continues to make money, perhaps Hollywood will give us more tales of the Wild West. I simply hope we would be treated to more masterpieces as opposed to mediocre samples of the genre.

5.0/10

RED FLAG FOR PARENTS (spoiler alert)

-DRUG ABUSE: A fair amount of festive and abusive drinking takes place in The Magnificent Seven.

-PROFANITY: Scatological terms and minor profanities are exclaimed numerous times (each) during the film's runtime.

-SEXUAL CONTENT: Prostitutes are frequently seen fondling the men who paid for sexual encounters, and vice versa. We learn that the villain had raped one of the main protagonist's daughters prior to her death.

-SUBJECT MATTER: At its core, The Magnificent Seven is most certainly a revenge story. Many of the characters are motivated by personal vendettas, whether or not they may be justifiable in the eyes of the audience members.

-VIOLENCE: Being a story of murder, revenge, and justice, one would expect that The Magnificent Seven has its fair share of violent imagery. It most certainly does, with the most intense images consisting of deaths caused by blades. These include both and women being stabbed by thrown axes, punctures from giant knives, and deaths from arrow strikes. One man, in particular, gets shot with four arrows before finally succumbing to the pain. Otherwise, many other people are killed by all different kinds of gunfire. Groups of men, along with the horses they are riding, are killed or seriously injured by dynamite blasts during the film’s climax. Men fighting on the opposite side of the conflict are mowed down by a Gatling gun. The villain is choked by the main protagonist until he is shot dead by a woman.