The Magnificent Seven

By: John Delia

Hitch up your horse to the nearest tie post, take your saddle into the nearest movie house and treat yourself to a hum dinger of a good time with The Magnificent Seven. It’s not the old 1960 rerun, but a spanking new movie with memories of the original. Branded with Antoine Fuqua direction, this wild west ditty has some mighty woop ass scenes that can rival the likes of Tombstone and Silverado.

Bounty hunter and Warrant Officer Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington) has taken down one of the West’s most wanted criminals when he’s approached by Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) from the small town of Rose Creek. She implores him to come back with her as their town is under siege by Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), a greedy businessman who’s forcing people to sell their land for pennies on the dollar. She tells Sam that Bogue has a band of murderous sidewinders backing him up.

Not wanting the little lady to go unprotected Sam rounds up six hardened gunslingers and a savage: Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio), Billy Rocks (Byung-Hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). All are willing to go with him to Rose Creek for the town’s protection.

The movie script that is loosely based on the original Magnificent Seven that was a hit in 1960 provides a good basis for the film. Director Antoine Fuqua, known for his ass-kicking movies like Training Day, The Replacement Killers and the brutal boxing film Southpaw, tries his hand at a western. While we still see a lot of his trademark violence, he handles this classic plot with kid gloves and tries not to destroy the impact that the original film made on audiences back in the day.

Denzel Washington gives a picture perfect Sam Chisolm, the tough gunslinger that has a lot of style. Brutal as they come in the old west, Washington takes some of his best acting from films like Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, Two Guns, Safe House and Training Day and crams it into a character that’s both brutal and heroic. He’s really the force as Yule Brenner was in the original making of The Magnificent Seven. This isn’t Academy Award stuff though, just pure entertainment from one of the most respected actors in Hollywood.

Others putting on a good show include Chris Pratt as Josh Farraday the gambler who latches on to Chisolm thinking there’s a lot of money in it for him. He’s quick thinking and quick on the draw when it comes to fighting Bogue’s army. The over the hill gunman Goodnight Robicheaux, who’s fashioned by Ethan Hawke, puts on a good show along with the tribeless American Indian Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier) who often saves the day with his deadly arrows.

What doesn’t shine through however are the sets and set ups that made the original town in The Magnificent Seven a more realistic feel for the old west. Fuqua’s cookie cutter buildings and store fronts look too Hollywood movie set and a lot of the confrontations between the characters look forced and plastic. Although the characters he creates are brilliant, even better than most films of this ilk, they are lifeless at times like props on a set. If Fuqua could have tightened the movie up a bit by cutting the film about fifteen minutes of repetition it would have helped also. That said, I still think it is a winner and even better than the original.

The Magnificent Seven has been rated PG-13 for extended and intense sequences of western violence and for historical smoking, some language and suggestive material.

FINAL ANALYSIS: For those who like “spaghetti westerns” and Antoine Fuqua’s brand of movie making. (B-)