The Magnificent Seven

•             PG-13
•             Action/Western/Adventure
•             US Release:  September 23, 2016
•             Runtime:  2 hours 12 minutes
•             Directed by Antoine Fuqua
•             Written by Nic Pizzolatto, Richard Wenk
•             Starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Haley Bennett, Peter Sarsgaard, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier
•             Grade:                        B
•                                           It’s good!

 

Shady business baron Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) and his men dominate and abuse the residents of Rose Creek, a western mining town. After her husband is killed by Bogue, Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) convinces U.S. Marshall Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington) to come to the town’s aid. Chisolm recruits a band of mercenaries, gamblers, bounty hunters, and outlaws to join him in bringing justice and revenge to the dusty little mining town, . . . and to Bogue’s private army.

The Magnificent Seven is very loosely based on The Seven Samurai and 1960’s The Magnificent Seven, but with nowhere near the same level of gravity. Instead of attempting to recapture the epic brilliance of The Seven Samurai or The Magnificent Seven, Antoine Fuqua and company have opted to pursue a more prosaic form of action entertainment, and they pulled it off rather . . . well, magnificently.

This is an action-filled and character-driven Western that is an absolute blast and thoroughly entertaining. The actors are clearly relishing their roles, and there isn’t a bad performance to be found here. In particular, Denzel is perfect as the solidly reliable Chisolm, Ethan Hawke is exceptional as haunted sharpshooter and southern gentleman Goodnight Robicheaux, and Vincent D’Onofrio almost steals the show as grizzled bounty hunter Jack Horne. Peter Sarsgaard exudes slime throughout the runtime, and Haley Bennett is entirely convincing as the young frontierswoman suppressing her grief to pursue justice. It’s a great cast, the script is filled with charm and humor, and Fuqua wisely allows the actors to go all-out with their characters.

The action scenes are simply incredible, pure Western awesomeness. There are two main action sequences: a town shoot-out near the middle of the film, and a much larger battle at the film’s conclusion. Fuqua brings a bit of past Westerns with him when directing these scenes, setting up a slow build of tension prior to the fight through the use of clever dialogue, a splendid score, and close-up, spaghetti-Western style shots of the actors’ faces. It’s good stuff, and I frequently found myself on the edge of my seat leaning forward, just waiting for that first shot that I knew was coming.

Once again, the collaboration between Fuqua and Denzel Washington (Training Day, The Equalizer) has produced a damn good film with solid acting, fantastic action sequences, and realistic set designs. About the only criticism I could level at The Magnificent Seven is that it is overwhelmingly pedestrian when compared to its namesake, an exercise in disposable entertainment rather than epic grandeur. However, it is probably not fair to make the comparison in the first place, since the filmmakers clearly had no intention of trying to compete with the predecessors. This movie was made for pure 100% fun, and it delivers.