The Magnificent Seven is a remake of the Western Classic by the same name. It is a western action flick that keeps you on the edge of your seat with action as well as some humor spliced in for good measure. The concept of The Magnificent Seven was first based off a Japanese Film titled "Seven Samurai". Both the original and the new one would originate from that film.
The Magnificent Seven sports an all star cast, much the same way the original did. When the film was still in it's planning stages, before production officially started, it was actually rumored to have even more of an all star cast with names like Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, and Matt Damon all attached to the project in varying degrees.
The film's director, Antoine Fukua, reportedly read the plans for the cast and immediately realized all the cast members were white. He felt that was not a fair representation of what the West was actually like back than as there was a fair amount of African American Cowboys, Mexican's, Native American's, and also Asian's who were there building the railroads. He also felt the audience would identify with the characters a bit more if there was some real diversity between them. For these reasons, the cast we see before us was born:
Denzel Washington
Chris Pratt
Ethan Hawke
Vincent D'Onofrio
Byung-hun Lee
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo
Martin Sensmeier
Haley Bennett
Peter Sarsgaard
Cam Gigandet
As you can see there is quite a diverse mix of ethnicities and cultures mixed in. That is exactly what the director was going for. Whether that actually helped the film any is up for debate. The original did not use such diversity in it's cast.
Plot:
The film starts out with a small mining town being overtaken by industrialist thugs when large amounts of gold and silver are discovered near by. They attempt to strong arm the town's people out of their land by paying them a low price for their land and when the people resist they are shot on the spot. This causes several of the town's people to team up and decide they need to go find some help. So, they collect all their money and valuables and head to the bigger nearby towns in search of some hired gunman that might be able to help save their town.
The first gunman they run into is none other than the baddest hombre around, Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington). It is clear that he is exactly the type of man they are looking for to help them out. However, Chisolm has no desire in killing for money or sticking his nose in someone else's problems.
That all changes when he hears the name of the person who is responsible for terrorizing the small mining town, Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard). Apparently there was some history between him and Mr. Chisolm long ago, as Chisolm completely changes his mind about helping and tells the towns people they are going to need an army to help them.
Chisolm then goes about recruiting different members to join his team. The first person he recruits is someone he just meets, Joshua Faraday (Chris Pratt). Faraday impresses him with his certain set of skills that makes him the right kind of man for the job, plus he appears to be down on his luck making persuading him quite easy for Chisolm. All it takes is buying his horse back from someone who won it in a poker game several nights before.
The two of them begin their journey of finding other suitable gun fighters that they think will be able to assist them with their newly pledged task. They ask a couple friends as well as strangers that they meet along the way who also appear to be the kind of men they are looking for.
When it is all said and done, there are 7 men that agree and are ready to fight for the small town. Each one possessing a different valuable skill that is useful in battle. Upon arriving to the small town and seeing the vastness of the oppressors, they realize that 7 men is not going to be nearly enough, so they recruit the townsmen to help them out, prompting them to fight for their own town.
Many of the men (and even women and children too) join and decide to help but most of them are farmers and regular town folk, not many are fighters or even know how to fight. The next several days are spent teaching the town's people how to fight and how to shoot. They set traps and bombs and all kinds of things to better help them fight against what is to come.
Chisolm and his men know that Bogue is very well resourced and that he won't give up the town and his mine without a fight. They fully expect him to send a small army to wipe out the people standing in his way, and an army is exactly what he sends...
I won't go into any more of the plot just in case you haven't seen the film yet. To find out what happens you will just have to watch the flick... ;)
Reception:
Overall the film has received mixed reviews from critics and fans alike. Rotten tomatoes gives the film a 62% approval rating while IMDB gives it a rating of 7/10.
The main criticisms are that the film doesn't offer anything new or different. Just another typical western shoot em up story where 7 bullet proof good guys take on hundreds of evil bad guys. One critic even went as far as to say that the story shouldn't be that shocking since it is exactly the same premise that "The Avengers" is based off of. A strictly good minority battling a strictly bad majority.
Critics did go on to say that the casting was done very well as the characters clearly worked well together and genuinely seemed to have fun during the movie. They also praised some of the action scenes saying that this film had top notch extended gun fighting scenes.
The film has done pretty well financially. To date the film has grossed more than $160 million world wide with a budget of around $90 million. It's $36 million it earned on opening weekend made it the 3rd largest western opening weekend ever.
Critics had been saying that the western genre is dead, this film was able to breath some life into the category and provide hope going forward for the genre. It did a good job of mixing new film making techniques with authentic western settings, giving it more of a modern feel.
My Review:
Overall I thought the film was pretty good. I haven't seen the original so I didn't really have much to compare it to. After reading the plot of the original it seems this film was only loosely based off of the original as that one was based in Mexico and the "bad guys" are bandits. This film is based in the US and the "bad guys" are rich industrialists and capitalists.
I thought the cast was excellent. Like the director intended to do, I thought the diversity of the cast allowed for each character to be developed and sympathized with a lot more than would have been done if all the characters had similar stories and back grounds. It helped me personally feel like each character was developed. Although, a couple of the characters needed more developing, there is only so much they can do in a 2 hour movie. :)
The action and fight scenes were outstanding, and there are a lot of them. The film had more blood, gore, and death than I originally thought there would be in a PG 13 film. This film was less Disney like in tone and because of this, it felt more real. Just as in real life, the good guys don't always win and they don't always make it out alive...
Overall I would give this film a rating of 8/10.
The film wasn't quite on the award winning level, but it was very entertaining and one I would watch again. It felt a lot like a summer blockbuster to me. Perhaps I just watched it at the wrong time of year?! Either way it had enough entertainment, action, and humor to keep me warm during these cold January nights!
The film is definitely worth watching. I have to imagine the fight sequences would be even more intense on the big screen. For that reason this is a film that is probably best enjoyed at the theater. Plus, you don't have to worry about catching every word to understand what is going on. If there are any theaters still playing this film near you, get out and see it. You likely won't regret it! ;)
Live well my friends!
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magnificent_Seven_(2016_film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2404435/
Image Sources:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2404435/mediaindex?ref_=tt_pv_mi_sm
