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THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
With Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Hayley Bennett, Peter Sarsgaard, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo
Written by Nic Pizzolatto & Richard Wenk (based on The Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa & Shinobu Massimoto, also adapted into the 1960 film Magnificent Seven by William Roberts)
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
Rose Creek is under the deadly control of industrialist Bartholomew Bogue. With a small army of henchmen he has an iron grip on its residence, indiscriminately killing those who get in his way.
Desperate residents employ the skills of bounty hunter Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), who recruits a rag-tag batch of badasses (with diverse skills) to rid their town of this dictator. Naturally this will not be a quick and easy task, a lot of bloodshed looming on both sides (but especially on that of the villains).
An action-packed remake with a good dose of humour, the first incarnation of this movie came in the shape of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese period film The Seven Samurai. Then in 1960 John Sturges' western adaptation with Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn and Eli Wallach brought the theme to a wider audience in America and the rest of the world.
Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke is to Antoine Fuqua what Robert DeNiro and Joe Peci is to Martin Scorsese. Washington and Hawke starred together in Fuqua's Training Day (which earned Denzel an Oscar).
Westerns are a rarity nowadays, but this is well worth it if your affinity lies with this genre.
DVD extras give more insight into the 7 characters, Fuqua's direction, the music, and villain Bogue.
Elmer Bernstein's immortal theme music has been included for that climactic, victorious finale end credit music. Here James Horner did the score, but maintained that original flavour. Sadly Horner died in a plane crash while they were shooting (but wrote songs off the script and left it for Fuqua - expanded by additional composer Simon Franglen and Simon Rhodes).
4 / B
- Paul Blom
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