Recent
Magnificent Seven Entertaining but Safe
by
Kristin Battestella
Director
Antoine Fuqua's (Olympus Has Fallen) 2016
The Magnificent Seven
has
all the hallmarks of the original 1960 western with a motley
1879 crew of cowboys, gunslingers, outlaws, and gamblers defending
the town of Rose Creek against a ruthless industrial baron. Although
the shootouts and genre action are entertaining, unfortunately this
endeavor lacks inspiration thanks to an uneven narrative that plays
it safe.
Dynamite
mining, strangleholds on crops, and meager offerings of $20 per
station lead to town meetings amid fears of this new businessman and
his hired guns terrorizing churches and burning buildings. How can
these pioneers defend themselves against such violence and shootouts?
Although a wicked scene in itself, the all for show opening of The
Magnificent Seven is extreme and over the top compared to the
otherwise safe tone of the picture. Why not meet the town and its
charred church when our eponymous heroes do and let the audience
imagine the horrors happening for themselves? The
serious western start and subsequent lighthearted adventure are mixed
window dressings with little depth – even town names
onscreen as they ride on to shooting contests and recruit more heroes
is a superficial way to create scope. A slow ride toward the saloon
with a man's reputation preceding him provides The Magnificent
Seven with more western
spirit. Poker, ordering whiskey, asking the barkeep for information –
the gun clicks, cigarette smoke billows, and shotgun below the bar
are tense! Our charming and ornery enlistees face-off against
gunslingers on the roof and dodge bullets as they vow to protect Rose
Creek. Of course, so many shows have already rifted on this famous
heroes teaching farmers with pitchforks to fight plot, and this
almost willingly plays into that generic western familiarity rather
than adding anything new. The middle of The Magnificent Seven
feels like one big montage as defense preparation builds – they
walk, they plan, they booby trap trenches and magically train
ridiculously bad townsfolk unable to throw knives or aim at any
targets. Granted, viewers wouldn't accept a simple cut to the final
battle with everything easy peasy, but the pace is forced and
disoriented. We meet people for an hour and practice for another half
hour before the titular boys get drunk and have some laughs over
naming their guns women's names. If we knew their personalities
equally, the bonding humor would happen on its own. Instead, cheery
scenes are out of place amid brooding characters who do have history,
religion, and reasons for doing what they do. The sardonic moments
are better once we're under siege with our team shoulder to shoulder
for one more huzzah. People are seriously wounded with well done
blood and fire while tolling bells and prayers accent the lengthy but
sometimes chaotic or confusing finale that squeezes three acts into
one – the surprise defense, bleak enemy firepower retaliation, and
the last sacrificial inspiration. The Magnificent Seven has
serious and touching moments in the end, but the heroics come as we
always knew they would, deflating some of the fine one on one
justice and cathartic catching the bad guy entertainment.
Well,
the piano player stops when Denzel Washington (Best Actor for
Training Day but
should have won for Malcolm
X) walks into the
saloon, oh yes. Sam Chisolm is an authorized warrant officer and man
of the peace who would rather not use his quick draw unless provoked.
He claims he isn't for hire but hears the proposition to help Rose
Creek and assists without taking the gold they offer. His simmering
rage suggests there must be a reason why, but Chisolm's going to see
this through because he says these people deserve their lives back.
The Magnificent Seven
provides
Washington some great dialogue for his on point delivery, even if
that's because Chisolm speaks the most and tells others what to do.
It's disappointing that
the side eyes he receives and the racism of the era aren't addressed
more, and the final scene explaining his history deserved a better
thematic build. However, The
Magnificent Seven really
only has time to show his story and mostly does it right alongside
heroic leaps through windows, a cool rearing horse, and a great
cowboy silhouette.
It might have been interesting to see a prequel of Chisolm alone
becoming licensed to vendetta, but unfortunately,
I'm not feeling Chris Pratt's (Jurassic World) gambler
Josh Faraday. His old fashioned dialogue doesn't sound natural, and
jokes about Koreans, American Indians, and Mexicans are unnecessary.
The card tricks and fast draws don't hide the fact that Pratt's just
playing the same cool guy he always does, and The
Magnificent Seven wastes
time on him being the funny pretty white guy when other characters
have more interesting tales to tell. It's tough to take Faraday
seriously even when he shoots off an enemy's ear, as Pratt's casting
purely for the appeal is apparent. I shudder to think about some of
the in-development casting rumors: The
Magnificent Seven featuring
Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, and five other guys you don't need to worry
about playing cowboys! In
contrast, Shakespeare quoting sharpshooter and southern gentleman
Ethan Hawke (Daybreakers)
sits at the campfire with Chisolm, reflecting on their history while
increasingly reluctant to fire a rifle thanks to his own infamous
Confederate past. They've been through these kind of hurrahs before,
and this personal PTSD arc deserved more than just being a few somber
moments amid lighter banter and gunfire.
Likewise,
Lee Byung-hun (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) and Manuel
Garcia-Rulfo (From Dusk till
Dawn: The Series) each have
their own specialty as Billy Rocks and Vasquez. There's a whiff of
Asians in the West stigmas and Spanish dislike, too. However, the
colorblind castings feel superficial – roles not for the
historically accurate representation or to detail the discrimination
they face but still little more than token appearances. We need more
films like Posse
addressing minorities in the West, but neither knife wielding Korean
nor Mexican vigilante talk much and hardly receive up close shots or
any camera focus. The blade action is cool, and a sword wielding nod
to the Seven Samurai origins
may have been on the nose, but seriously, why couldn't any of the
minorities in The
Magnificent Seven have
been Pratt's second
lead? Unsurprisingly, the appropriate casting of Martin Sensmeier
(Salem)
as Comanche warrior Red Harvest is also delightful to see yet under
portrayed, resorting the character to always being hungry, eating raw
meat, and disliking beans alongside typical mysticism fears from the
rest of the team. He only speaks Comanche – or so they think –
and the use of the bow and arrow amid all the rifle love deserved
more showcasing. There should have been more to his rivalry with the
Comanche counterpart fighting on the bad side, too – a Snake Eyes
versus Storm Shadow one on one rather than a late blink and you miss
it confrontation. The almost unrecognizable Vincent D'Onofrio's (Law
& Order: Criminal Intent)
spiritual mountain man Jack Horne is old, a bittersweet remnant of
past ways. He's happy to do what's right and fight alongside men he
can respect, and once again, deserved more attention. Righteousness
won't do barely there Matt Bomer (Magic
Mike) any good, but his
wife Haley Bennett (The Girl on the Train) is almost
part of the seven. Although her red hair, rosy cheeks, low cut
shirts, and boob illumining lanterns aren't striving for costuming
accuracy, Emma can shoot without Faraday's trying that flirtatious
gun lesson cliché. Maybe it would be typical to have her be a
teacher or nurse, but she deserved something stronger a husbandly
connection. Of course, it's not shocking to see Peter Sarsgaard
(Flightplan)
as the villainous Bartholomew Bogue. He looks coked out, a snotty
little asshole who hides behind Gatling guns and isn't much of a man
when it comes to fighting himself. Bogue makes scary examples of
children in the name of his so called industrial progress, however,
his brutally over the top ruthless is absent for over an hour.
Between all the permeating sarcasm, what should be personal terror
strays into caricature – Bogue's almost there just because we need
somebody to hate, and we don't discover his history with Chisolm
until their final scene.
Blue
skies, colorful prairies, and green valleys in The
Magnificent Seven also look
too modern, a scheme digitally over saturated rather than the dirty
and dusty western rugged audiences expect. Rustic buildings, wagons,
stagecoaches, and horses better set the mood amid fitting hoof beats,
dynamite explosions, and gunfire. There's not much indoor action, but
the dark saloon adds tension while real outdoor filming with
windswept riding, rocky outcroppings, and mountain echoes build Old
West atmosphere. The enemy charge is well done with steady zooms,
choice slow motion, and upward horseback angles alongside unique
knife battles, ax work action, riding feats, and fancy precision
shooting. However, some transition scenes and silent montage moments
are useless, and the pacing tries to keep up with today's in your
face yet falls back on old strategies and cinematic tricks – the
rope across that unseats a rider, a hidden trench with a surprise, or
decoy ammunition distractions. A ridiculous amount of camera work
also focuses on our men and their gun belts, panning up to the
holster as one spins his six shooter or sweeping down as he bends to
pick up the shot gun. Whether its to show off the bad ass gear or the
tight chaps, once was enough – it's not sexy, just more like over
compensation or penis envy. o_O The music for this Magnificent
Seven is
also woefully uneven. If this
is supposed to be a heroic adventure, let's hear the theme! The
unfinished score from the late James Horner (The Wrath of Khan) borrows
cues, remaining contemporary and standard rather than instantly
recognizable and rousing. Not until the movie ends are viewers
treated to the familiar upbeats and a fun credits design that should
have set the tone at the beginning.
After such basic plots, hearing the music coda made me want to watch
previous incarnations of The
Magnificent Seven more than
anything else. Therein is the trouble with all these reboots,
sequels, and remakes today. Why tune in to these when you can just
enjoy the original nostalgia again and again? Of course, I love the
1960 film, enjoy the follow ups, and really liked the brief 1998-2000
television series. Heck, I taped them of television on chewed up VHS,
and wow, I feel really
old by admitting I signed up for one of those early internet
campaigns to save the show!
Westerns
are ripe for a comeback because this is a genre that can encapsulate
all our current gritty cynicism or let the good guys win when we need
it. Rather than inserting superficial diversity with little time to
explore all the characters, it's surprising this project wasn't
another Magnificent Seven
serial with time to address
the history, racism, and personality of each hero. Were they hoping
to make a movie franchise with the latest cool guys varying the seven
each time? Unfortunately, this Magnificent
Seven wavers
between lighthearted adventure and innate lawlessness in a try hard
PG-13 attempt more concerned with safely appealing to all audiences
rather than balancing the cast and the heroics versus grit tone. At
two hours plus, The
Magnificent Seven delays
a story we know and have seen many times – this picture needed more
polish or substance and isn't as good as it should be. It's worth
seeing through for fans of the cast, but this doesn't have a lot of
repeat value. The gun violence may not be for young viewers, however,
The Magnificent Seven can
be a fun yarn for a movie night if you expect nothing more than
temporary popcorn entertainment.
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