THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (2016) (6 out of 10) Directed by Antoine Fuqua; Written by Richard Wenk and Nic Pizzolatto; based on a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguni; Starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’onofrio, Peter Sarsgaard; Rated PG-13 for “extended and intense sequences of Western violence, and for historical smoking, some language and suggestive material”; Running time 132 minutes; In wide release September 23, 2016.
The story is one you all know. A small town of farmers is threatened by bandits (in this case, robber barons) and they decide they need to hire seven heroes to defend them.
Why is this version of an endlessly remade tale different? Well, I suppose, it’s different because Antoine Fuqua directed it and he cast new actors. It’s certainly not because this story is being given new life in a new setting. The original is set in feudal Japan. We’ve seen this story play out in a western before in the 1960 film of the same name. It’s been adapted into the “Star Wars” universe, and even Pixar brought it to the world of insects in “A Bug’s Life.” There have been others; there will be many more.
The set up for the movie is done well enough, I suppose. Peter Sarsgaard plays Bartholomew Bogue, the evil robber baron intent on taking the land beneath the poor farmers for his gold mining enterprise. He offers to return three weeks hence to pay everyone $20 for their land or to kill them all. Those are their choices. Sarsgaard is doing some of his best work here. He commands the screen every moment he’s on and it’s a shame such attention wasn’t given to many of the rest of the characters.
In “Seven Samurai,” it’s a young peasant named Rikichi who decides the village must fight, though everyone is not convinced. He sets out to hire the right samurai. In a refreshing gender reversal, this role is filled by a young woman whose lost her husband named Emma Cullen. She’s played quite capably by Haley Bennet in a fiery performance, but her wardrobe left something to be desired. Cullen is a red-headed beauty and aims to be one of the men, but she rides out in the sun at all hours of the day in bare shoulders and exposed cleavage with nothing but a hat to shade her. I couldn’t help but squirm at the sunburn her character would have after the end of just a single day in the clothes they chose for her. It simply wasn’t practical and was chosen almost completely for the male gaze.
So, this un-sunburned firebrand of a woman seeks out her heroes and comes across Denzel Washington’s Sam Chisolm. Chisolm is, probably, an officer of the law sent to collect bounties on various ne’er-do-wells. Though it’s never explicitly stated, it feels like this is more of a cover story for him being nothing but a bounty hunter. He’s good at what he does, though, and no one balks at the fact that he’s a black man in a position of power less than a decade after the Civil War.
He agrees, finally, to help the young widow and her village, but this is where I found the story starting to turn sour on me. Instead of the benevolent force of Takashi Shimura’s Kambei Shimada, we learn in bits of exposition doled out with a ham-fist that Chisolm wants revenge against Bogue. And suddenly a story about communal protection and standing up for what’s right turns into a mano y mano story about whether or not Chisolm will get his revenge. The village is an afterthought.
Quickly, he assembles a team of super-men. Chris Pratt is a southern wisecracking, prestidigitating gunfighter with a drunk streak. Ethan Hawke is a revered veteran of the Confederacy and a renowned sharpshooter who secretly can’t bring himself to fire a gun. Vincent D’Onofrio (who might be the most interesting of the group and certainly made the boldest acting choices) is a veteran of the “Indian” wars and is more gentle bear and killer than a man. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is the Mexican outlaw Vasquez. Byng Hun-lee is Billy Rocks, an Asian knife thrower. And, finally ,Martin Sensmeir is a lone-wolf Commanche named Red Harvest.
Why any of these men coalesce together is anyone’s guess.
The script throws them together anyway it can, rather than taking the time to slowly build the characters and their stories. And it’s curious that the two members of the team Washington’s Chisolm is closest to are both former Confederates. It’s an anachronism that doesn’t seem to make much sense.
Once they arrive in the town, they kill all of the existing resistance in a shootout that proves that they’re invulnerable super-men who fight with the fervor of ten times their number. Then they plan. And this is where the film went completely off the rails for me.
In the original “Seven Samurai,” Akira Kurosawa allows us to plan with the samurai. He gives us a clear picture of the layout of the village and shows us what it looks like both on a map and in person. We understand Kambei’s plan because we understand the strategy and the layout. We understand the stakes because we know how many men there are. We are able to feel the tension ratchet up because we know when something works and when it doesn’t. In fact, the internal geography of the farming village in “Seven Samurai” and the ensuing battle is nothing short of stunning in its filmmaking competency.
Unfortunately, Antoine Fuqua has none of these chops. We’re told the battle plan, but it doesn’t quite make sense. And the way the battles are shot make almost no sense. Fuqua also tries to withhold some of that geography almost purposely, though to what end I can’t discern. It makes the entire last hour of the film confusing and frustrating. For example, when Bogue and his army approach from the hilltop and charge the town, we see them charging at the dusty town. Then in another cutaway, there they are, charging, and there are miner’s tents between them and the village. Then in the next cutaway, those tents are gone. Then there are some big explosions. We see huge swaths of this army die, but since there’s no way to keep track, we’re told to believe that the men don’t run out until the story calls for it, not when it makes sense.
Soon enough, Bogue realizes he’s losing and decides to bring a Gatling gun into play. It’s wheeled out into the countryside 300-400 yards out of town. And this Gatling gun is somehow able to hit every position of every person inside the town, regardless of where they are or what side of the street they’re on. It makes no sense given the cutaways and the staging we are able to track, and it creates another sensation of frustration.
Ultimately, with many of the Magnificent Seven killed, some for little to no reason, none with any emotional resonance, we’re given the one on one fight between Chisolm and Bogue. And the only satisfaction we feel in this conclusion is based solely on Sarsgaard’s performance. Any other emotional resonance in the film is unearned.
Despite this, the movie is entertaining enough. It was just ill-conceived and poorly executed. Which is troubling, because it’s not like someone hadn’t already shown Fuqua how it should be done right. To that end, this is a film full of unforced errors. Unfortunately, I worry a modern audience won’t even notice or care, and perhaps that means the joke is on me. This will be a popular film based on the cult of personality around the actors involved and because the explosions were cool, no one will care that none of it makes any damn sense.
This film should have been great. Instead, it’s merely okay. It definitely won’t be the classic film either of its predecessors were. 6 out of 10.
If you want my advice, stay home and watch “Seven Samurai” instead. Or even the original “Magnificent Seven.” Hell, even “A Bug’s Life” is a better, more competent retelling.