The Magnificent Seven kicks off with the people of Rose Creek meeting in a Church to discuss what to do about Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), the businessman taking over their town. Bogue interrupts this meeting, and makes an example out of some of the townspeople by killing them. Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett), whose husband was one of the men killed in that encounter, seeks help to save the town. She finds bounty hunter Chisolm (Denzel Washington), who takes the job after learning who he’d be going after. He recruits six other men, who all rally to get the town ready to face off against the army that Bogue is surely going to bring with him.
This is a remake of the 1960 John Sturges feature, which itself was a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. And this is probably the shallowest version of the story, the movie featuring little of the moral ambiguity or philosophical underpinnings of either of the earlier iterations. It is instead, just a story about seven really awesome guys leading an oppressed town in a battle of survival against a completely evil, unredeemable representation of greed. Having said that, it’s a thoroughly entertaining picture dripping with charisma and flavorful dialogue.
Seven Samurai had a lot going on under the hood. It was a story of warriors with no more wars to fight, their code of honor seemingly rendered meaningless in a new age. Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven toned down the subtext, but there was still some room for heady issues. This film is mostly about a bunch of cool heroes hanging out. One of the characters does get a measure of depth, his experience with war haunting him much more than his reputation might suggest. But that film hardly hinges on that subplot. It aims to be much simpler than that.
But simple does not mean bad. The film is still a pretty fizzy concoction that really takes advantage of the sturdy premise. There will always be room in cinemas for larger-than-life personalities getting to do cool stuff while saying even cooler stuff. Nic Pizzolatto, best known for creating True Detective, is credited as one of the writers of this film. His ability to put together a folksy, poetic turns of phrase is used to great effect. The dialogue in this film might actually be an improvement over the Sturges film. It isn’t really much more than seasoning, but it does make everything a lot more palatable.
Antoine Fuqua is always a steady presence on the director’s chair. He’s not one to elevate material, necessarily, but he’s the kind of craftsman that will all but guarantee a certain level of technical quality. But really, this film belongs to the actors. It could be argued that Denzel Washington is the greatest living actor, and the massive presence that he brings to this film is ample evidence for that case. Chris Pratt brings leading man charm as well. And Ethan Hawke is just tremendous in this movie. He leans fully into becoming a character actor, and he doesn’t squander the film’s lone bit of character depth.
The Magnificent Seven is a lot of fun. Those looking for the hidden depths of the earlier versions might leave disappointed, but it is genuinely difficult to argue against the magnetism present in this film. These are actors that could make reading the plainest of lines feel compelling. Given genuinely flavorful dialogue, these actors are able to draw substance from what is otherwise just a stylistic exercise. These are just people worth watching, given words worth saying.
My Rating:
