I had a good time attending and watching this large scale western that derives from John Sturges’s 1960 version, which originated from Akira Kurosawa’s epic samurai movie “Seven Samurai” (1954). A lot of branches here. But each one of these films stand on their own. Antoine Fuqua’s version is dark, funny, and very personal, something he does very well in his films. Fuqua directed the cast extremely well to get entertaining and thoughtful performances. Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, and Chris Pratt are a powerhouse together and balance each other with the comic relief (Pratt), seriousness (Washington), and vulnerability (Hawke) all acting as one. Very good mix of characters and a unique score by the late James Horner, which left me surprised towards the positive.
One gripe I have with this film is it’s character development with the lead villain, Bartholomew Bouge, played by Peter Sarsgaard. The movie starts with Bogue intimidating and threatening the townspeople because he wants to mine gold in the area. Now that’s something a bad guy in any western would do, but what motivates his hatred towards people? The story dives into his persona, more than any villain in the three related films, so I wanted more details about why he kills people for no reason. Eli Wallach in the 1960 version plays the villain Calvera who shoots a villager coming at him with a machete, and in “Samurai” the bandit chieftain played by Shenpei Takagi never gets an introduction. Bouge is the one who the movie dives into, but falls flat on his engine. Gold seems to be good enough here, but I find Wallach to provide us the most layered villain. I just wanted more reason to the madness.
My favorite part of this movie is the third act, and boy does it end with a bang! Over 60 bad guys on horses ride into the town and the townspeople and the Seven fight back in one of the largest shootouts in any western I have ever seen. I was engulfed in the fighting, and I thought I was watching a war film. The heroes and villains alike get dirty in this kind of fighting, which involve rifles, revolvers, knives, dynamite, bows and arrows, and a Gatling gun. That’s not a spoiler because they showed it in the trailer. If you’re going to watch this movie and expect a lot of shooting and violence, you won’t be disappointed.
Denzel Washington in “The Magnificent Seven”
MovieGo 