'The Magnificent Seven' A Review

The Magnificent Seven is a western, a remake of the 1960 film of the same name itself a remake of the Japanese original Seven Samurai. The film opens in 1879 on a small mining town Rose Creek which is under the increasingly tight and violent rule of Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard). Searching for help Emma Cullen(Haley Bennett) encounters and persuades bounty hunter Sam Chisolm(Denzel Washington) to assist. Chisolm rounds up six rough and tumble warriors to stand up the robber baron and the inevitable confrontation ensues.

Washington's magnetism has not decreased with age, he is eminently watchable as always, especially refreshing with the glut of narratives with moral ambiguity, he is a hero plain and simple. The rest of the seven, although mostly underdeveloped, give playful performances with a couple nice flourishes. Notably Vincent D'Onofrio as the squeaking voiced barely sane religious mountain man and Byung-hun Lee and Ethan Hawk as Goodnight Robicheaux and Billy Rocks respectively who exhibit an understated romantic chemistry. The big misfire of the group is Chris Pratt as Joshua Faraday whose punching a bit above his weight. Without his normal levity to lean his typical charm isn't in full force and he fails to reach the sought after levels of menace and nihilistic bravado. Bennett does a good job, although not exactly showcased she fights and isn't a romantic interest, a success in and of itself even if her character lacks dimension(they all do).

The landscapes of the film are stunning, the gun play and horse work thrilling, there is only half a dozen CGI dynamite induced explosions which are slightly distracting but don't detract from the mostly evocative and transportive world the film builds with its production design and stunt work. The characters aren't as fully flushed out as you might like but the performances make up for most of those gaps and the script provides brief moments of illumination for the characters. flushing out the various perspectives with back story and inference with a surprising elegance. There are certainly over-the-top moments and periodic cliched moralizing but as a whole it works. In our current climate a film this straightforward is a rare pleasure.

Excellent action, great cast, and an unapologetic heroic yarn.

See It.