The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven

Starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Peter Sarsgaard, Ethan Hawke

Directed by Antoine Fuqua

The Story:
In the wild west, corrupt industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) travels from town to town, claiming their land and taking their gold.  When he arrives at Rose Creek, he finds resistance in Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett), who won't abandon her town without a fight.  She goes out and finds bounty hunter Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), who agrees to take back her town from Bogue for a price.  He enlists gambler Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), sharpshooter Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), tracker Jack Horne (Vincent D'Onofrio), assassin Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), Mexican outlaw Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and Comanche warrior Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier) to rally what's left of the town to bring Bogue's tyranny to an end.  However, it's much more complicated than it sounds, and time is running out for the small town as well as the band of seven misfits.

The Synopsis:
"The Magnificent Seven" is a remake of the 1960 film of the same title, which in itself is a remake of the classic 1954 "Seven Samurai."  It's directed by Antoine Fuqua, who directed other fantastic films such as "Training Day," "Shooter," "The Equalizer" and "Southpaw," and features some of today's biggest A-list actors including Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and Peter Sarsgaard.  In a time where it seems the Western genre is making a comeback (the video game "Red Dead Redemption" and Quentin Tarantino's epic "The Hateful Eight"), this film features throwbacks to the classic Western genre and delivers soon-to-be-classic one liners and fantastic Western action, and is a welcome addition to the new Western genre.

The story itself is as simple as it can get: a bad guy (who is only missing a handlebar mustache to twirl evilly and having a female tied up to some train tracks) wants to do bad things, and a group of good (well, pseudo-good) guys band together to stop him.  There's no real depth of characters here, and there doesn't need to be.  Each character is already firmly established in this world, and we're just along for the ride.  Thankfully, it's a thrill-a-minute ride with classic Western shoot-em-ups and relateable, charismatic characters that makes it really easy to get engrossed in the tale being told and appreciate a genre thought long extinct.

When it comes to the action, there's a lot of shoot-em-up scenes, some big explosions and your typical Western standoff in a throwback to the gunfight at the OK Corral, as well as your typical Mexican standoff (or, as Pratt's character Farraday says, "a Mexican standoff between an Irishman and a Baptist"). 


The real strength in this film is in the fantastic ensemble cast it produces.  As the leader of the ragtag group, Denzel Washington proves himself once again as a fantastic actor as he is the glue that holds everything together, never showing an ounce of fear or trepidation, and always has a plan.  Chris Pratt plays the witty sidekick role to perfection, delivering some of the best one-liners in the movie as well as being his natural, charming, charismatic self.  Ethan Hawke has the most meaty role as a sharpshooter who also suffers from PTSD, while his sidekick Billy (played by Byung-hun Lee) is one of the most amazing assassins ever, and uses knives like extensions of his body.  Manuel Garcia-Rulfo serves as the Mexican outlaw who banters with Pratt's character like long-lost buddies, and Martin Sensmeier's Red Harvest is a Comanche warrior who's prolific use of bow and arrow parallels that of Legolas himself.  Yet the biggest standout of the Seven is Vincent D'Onofrio's Jack Horne, who might just be a little loco in the head as he just goes psycho on bad guys, even running full force and tackling a man on a horse, knocking them both down.  He is the one who steals any scene he's in, and he's just a hoot. 

The supporting cast is also equally as fantastic as the title characters.  Peter Sarsgaard obviously relishes in his Western bad guy role, and Haley Bennett (who holds a STRONG physical resemblance to Jennifer Lawrence) is your no-nonsense anti-damsel in distress who knows how to hold her own.  Together, this ensemble group is the heart of the film, and if it were done with a different cast, it wouldn't have been nearly as good as it turned out to be.  They manage to lull the audience into a false sense of security with their good-natured banter and comedic timing, before realizing how high the stakes are in the final fight, where even Washington's character notes, "not everyone is going to make it." 

The Summary:
Thanks to a fantastic ensemble cast, "The Magnificent Seven" is truly a magnificent piece of cinema, filled with classic action and characters you root for and value, giving a deeply humanistic feel to this Western tale.

The Score: A