In most cases, remakes are churned out by Hollywood for a quick financial turnaround, exploiting the success and popularity of the original. You could easily argue that this is precisely the situation with The Magnificent Seven, which aims to present a new generation of film audiences with the classic western adventure that, in fact, drew much of its inspiration from Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. All that aside, it’s still a movie, fundamentally designed to entertain us, so if it interests you, go and see it!
Directed by Antoine Fuqua, who is no stranger to the action genre, the familiar tale follows seven gunmen who are hired to help fend off a corrupt industrialist who has besieged a poor mining town and its defenceless citizens. Embodying many of the common tropes synonymous with gung-ho westerns of the decades past, The Magnificent Seven is successful at being consistently entertaining during almost the entirety of its two-hour-plus run-time. Fuqua manages to create fast, exciting and well-executed sequences, befitting the larger-than-life personalities at the heart of the film. Our cast of characters is well distinguished, and while not all are as fleshed out as others, they’re likable and easy for the viewers to get behind as their seemingly impossible task approaches. Denzel Washington slips into the dark denim reminiscent of Yul Brynner’s iconic look from the 1960 original, delivering an effortless performance as the stern bounty hunter Chisholm. Chris Pratt is well suited as the laid-back joker and womaniser of the gang, Josh Faraday, while Ethan Hawke brings a poignant and humanising quality as the once-famed Confederate sharpshooter Goodnight Robicheaux. In the starkest of contrast between our heroes, Peter Sarsgaard is genuinely terrifying as the purely villainous Bartholomew Bogue, an impressive turn for the now veteran actor.
Contrary to what you have probably heard, The Magnificent Seven is actually a lot of fun. Obviously it’s far from original, but it succeeds in celebrating the simple storytelling of good vs bad and fighting for a righteous cause in all its glory among the smoke of a six-shooter!
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
(2016, dir: Antoine Fuqua)
★★★½
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