Before I start, I have to disclose how much I love the Western genre in cinema. Everything from THE SEARCHERS to NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN to even COWBOY BEBOP makes me tingle with excitement. There is something about the reserved main character, deserts, and gun slinging that is just so undeniably cool. Combine that with the ragtag Suicide Squad, er, I mean gang of extremely diverse and likable characters with unique abilities that have to take down an army way larger than they can handle, and you have the perfect set up for fun. A reuniting of the ever-talented Denzel Washington with TRAINING DAY director Antoine Fuqua, accompanied by the brilliant writer from first season of TRUE DETECTIVE (Nic Pizzolatto), the new version of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN should be like shooting fish in a barrel.
A remake of the eponymous 1960 film, which is in turn a westernization of the classic 1954 Akira Kurosawa masterpiece SEVEN SAMURAI, the new film follows Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), a tormented bounty hunter passing through northern California. He meets Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) who is looking for hired guns in order to take back her town after it had been overrun by Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), the leader of an extensive gang. Having a personal vendetta against Bogue, he accepts the request and begins to recruit a cast of characters to help him. He first gets Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt), a quick-witted gambler and indebted friend, followed by Civil War veteran and “angel of death” sharpshooter Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke) and his new assassin friend Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee). In addition to this they find an eccentric tracker named Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio), a wanted Mexican bandit named Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and a Comanche warrior dubbed Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier).
Director Antoine Fuqua really has to be commended in the diversity of the cast, and everyone gets to pick their favorite of the Seven. Mine was Billy Rocks, if only because it was great to see an Asian assassin character be funny realized instead of just being the standard silent un-relatable killing machine. While it would be a complete lie to say each character was equally fleshed out – as Washington, Pratt and Hawke get the majority of the character development – it is no SUICIDE SQUAD in how invisible the characters are. Each one gets their moment to shine in their recruitment and at least one scene during the climax, including Haley Bennett, as a strong female character. She really is equal to the rest of the cast, but Tarantino already called dibs on the “Eight” Western. Hawke even gets a small subplot on the horrors he saw during the Civil War that moves the drama along during a slower section between fight scenes. It’s also nice to see a black man in a leading role where race is wholly unrelated to the character. Vasquez and Red Harvest really could have used more lines, but the cast is fleshed out well enough for the action the movie wants though.
Now to put all the praise I’m giving in perspective, I am rating it on what it aims to be… a fun action western. No character or conflict is deep enough to really ask for insight. It does drag a bit between the fight scenes, like Ethan Hawke’s character conflict was just thrown in to keep the drama moving while the film regrouped for the climax. Really, the main complaints about this movie are going to be that it could have been better if it tried just a bit. If I always rate movies on what they aim to be, how should I rate one that should have aimed higher? The character screen time is satisfactorily spread, but definitely not the depth of development. More importantly, the movie could have used action to enhance the story of Sam Chisolm instead of the other way around.
But for what it aims to be the production is pure saturated fun. There is no doubt all who go to the theater will have a good time. If the film had aimed to be any more than an action flick it really could have been great, but what action it does deliver is supreme.
