If you’re going to pick a film to give the remake treatment,
you could do a lot worse than John Sturges’s iconic 1960 western “The
Magnificent Seven,” which was itself an Americanized take on Akira Kurosawa’s
“Seven Samurai.” Holding onto the sturdy plotline of the original, the new
film’s major change is injecting some diversity into its ensemble, while
anchoring the cast with a few recognizable faces — it swaps in the likes of
Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, and Vincent D’Onofrio for Steve
McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, and James Coburn.
Reteaming
with his “Training Day” and “Equalizer” director, Antoine Fuqua, Washington
plays bounty hunter Sam Chisolm. Hired by the desperate Emma Cullen (Haley
Bennett, “Music and Lyrics”), the outlaw is tasked with rounding up some men to
help defend the frontier town of Rose Creek from the odious Bartholomew Bogue
(played by an effective, if somewhat one-note, Peter Sarsgaard), the cutthroat
capitalist who’s been terrorizing the town in the hopes of claiming it as his
own.
Washington
tamps down his natural charisma to play the terse, stoic lawman. With hints of
a tragic backstory, he’s forced to play the straight man to the more showy
roles of his castmates. As laconic Irishman Josh Faraday, Pratt gets more of an
opportunity to demonstrate his innate affability, and the part plays
significantly better to his strengths than his role in “Jurassic World” — here
he at least gets to crack a few jokes. His performance may be at least 40
percent badass leaning, but there’s no denying he’s got that down pat.
Chisolm’s
next recruit is his old friend Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), a
sharpshooter and Civil War vet still suffering from PTSD, and his
knife-wielding partner, Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee, “I Saw the Devil”). The
ragtag band of mercenaries is rounded out by a Mexican bandit named Vasquez
(Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), one of Chisolm’s bounties whom he lets off the hook in
exchange for his assistance; a Comanche warrior named Red Harvest (Martin
Sensmeier), skilled with a bow and arrow; and wildcard scalp collector Jack
Horne (D’Onofrio).
A
significant portion of the film’s runtime is devoted to Chisolm rustling up
each man and convincing him to join the cause. The film plods from scene to
scene with little to propel it forward since, thanks to the title and the
ability to count, we’re pretty sure which way each interaction is going to
swing. And for all the time spent with these men, far too many are
underdeveloped as characters — Vasquez and Red Harvest feel particularly
underwritten.
But once the
lengthy showdown against Bogue and his goons gets going, the film is
wall-to-wall gunslinging. Fuqua has a good eye for action, and the film’s many
shootouts are well-staged, with more than its share of thrilling moments — including
a theater-shaking sequence as Bogue and his goons unload a Gatling gun on the
town. But even those start to grow numbing after a while.
There’s some
attempt to give the film a new cultural relevance through the ethnic makeup of
its cast, and there’s something to the idea of a woman and a diverse group of
minorities fighting back against the white men who’ve made them feel they have
no right to the country they call home. Still this is an old-fashioned western
through and through: Fuqua and screenwriters Nic Pizzolatto (HBO’s “True
Detective”) and Richard Wenk aren’t interested in a revisionist take on the
genre. They play things entirely straight, and the film indulges in all the
expected tropes, breakaway saloon railings and all.
Yet it’s not
quite enough to distinguish the film. Too often, “The Magnificent Seven” just
feels like yet another of the superhero team-up films that are so in vogue
these days. With each man joining the fight, bringing his particular skillset
to the battle, it’s got more in common with “The Avengers” and “Guardians of
the Galaxy” (which incidentally also starred Pratt as a roguish outlaw) than
the classics of the genre it’s ostensibly drawing from.
The last
project taken on by the late James Horner, who died before completing the score
(which was then finished by his friend Simon Franglen). The composer contributes
a stirring and effective musical through line, even incorporating the memorable
main theme from Sturges’s film.
One
absolutely atrocious final shot aside, “The Magnificent Seven” isn’t a bad
movie. It’s just a curiously lifeless one. Despite a capable director and a
talented cast, things never quite click into gear, in the end it feels like so
much wasted potential.
Check back on Friday for
additional film coverage, including reviews of the Witness Palestine film
series and a preview of local events in honor of Art House Theater Day.
This article appears in Sep 21-27, 2016.
