MOVIE REVIEW: The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven (2016)

Action, Western

Directed By: Antoine Fuqua

Unlike most movie goers, I am not at all opposed to reboots and remakes. It is a Hollywood 'trend' that has been around forever and when it's done right we have been given some all-time great films. The key is finding what worked so well in the original and re-adapting it for a new audience. John Sturges did this almost flawlessly when reimagining Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai for American audiences as an epic western named The Magnificent Seven. 

Now it's 2016 and the thought of another remake of this property actually feels appropriate. The social landscape has drastically changed in some ways, while staying exactly the same in others. There appeared to be a story to tell and I was willing to let Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) bring it to me. Unfortunately, whatever message this movie wanted to bring to the forefront was totally lost behind buckets of bullets and a crazy body count.

By now everyone is familiar with the basic story, it's been reimagined and riffed on countless times throughout the history of film. A peaceful town needs help driving out a violent, evil force and to do so they hire a group of cowboys to protect them. This time around the evil force is a vicious land barren by the name of Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) who is gradually stealing the land away from these poor farmers, often using deadly force to do so. When the people approach bounty hunter Chisolm (Denzel Washington) about it he jumps at the chance to fight back against the notorious Bogue, he's just going to need a small team of highly skilled men to do it.

Antoine Fuqua's version of The Magnificent Seven is a fine action western. It delivers on the gun fights and the charisma, however, it falls short in the key areas that would make this feel like a true, authentic western. If you are simply looking for a giant "shoot em' up" outlaw flick than this movie is for you. The story starts and ends with extreme violence and you can't go more than ten minutes without someone being killed or injured in some sort of violent fashion.

Something felt off while I was watching this though, like some essential ingredients to the recipe had simply been forgotten. For starters, the score is dismal and anyone who knows anything about westerns knows that a giant, iconic score is practically a staple of the genre. I couldn't help but wonder in the most intense moments of the film how much more of an impact they would have had with a beautiful piece of music over top of it. The film does a good job to remind you of this when some of the original score takes over right as the end credits begin to roll. 

I mentioned how, for a remake to succeed, one of the key elements in doing so is understanding what worked about the original and bringing it into a new time or place. Fuqua understood the bare essentials of the story, he got seven badass dudes together to fight impossible odds, but he didn't seem to get what lied at the core of that story. It is a story about not so good people doing great things for the sake of being decent, it's as simple as that. I won't spoil any details but let's just say that Denzel Washington's character had unfavorable motives in the movie that basically counteract the entire purpose of its predecessor as well as the other six guys fighting alongside him in this new take.

Still though, with this movie being more action than western, I found more than enough to latch on to to enjoy my time with this movie. For starters, Vincent D'Onofrio disappears into his character making choices that feel like they belong in a totally different, better western all together. His performance is worth the price of admission alone and with Byung-hun Lee (I Saw The Devil) spewing more charisma through body language than other other character with heavy dialogue this film manages to keep you engaged the entire runtime. 

Somewhere in this movie it felt like Fuqua had a deeper story to tell but it was sacrificed in the name of gunfights and hollywood charisma. They brought together a truly enjoyable ensemble cast that, though their not given much in the way of character development, carry this film on their shoulders. If you are just looking for a good time, shoot em up western this is the film for you. For those looking for a more authentic, classic western maybe wait for Ti West's latest flick In a Valley of Violence, which is getting good festival buzz.  

As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches Movies. You can find me anytime on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later!