Review: Nothing Can Stop THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, Except the Script

I want to see more films like Antoine Fuqua's THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN -- a Western with plenty of action, old-school but with a diverse cast, strong performances, all under capable direction. Now, if only we could get a better script.

Fuqua's remake retelling reimagining THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN opens in 1879, with Emma Cullen's (Haley Bennett) tiny Rose Creek settlement being terrorized by one Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), a robber baron looking to mine the valley for gold. After resistance to Bogue's attempt to drive the townspeople from their land ends in a vicious show of power (and a promise from Bogue to return in an even worse mood), Emma ventures out for help. She is soon able to recruit Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), a warrant officer who (for personal reasons to be revealed) takes pity on Emma and Rose Creek.

From there, Chisolm assembles his team: the gunslinging trickster Joshua Faraday (Chris Pratt); an outlaw named Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), who agrees to work with Chisolm in exchange for one less lawman on his trail; old Civil War buddy Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke) and his knife-wielding travel companion Billy Rocks (Byung-Hun Lee); Jack Horne (Vincent D'Onofrio), a mountain man quite skilled in ... hand-to-hand combat (that's a polite way of saying he can and will kill you with his bare hands); and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier), a Comanche traveling on a different path, away from his tribe.

Outgunned and outmanned, the seven work together, against the odds, to protect Rose Creek.

It is abundantly clear that the script, by Nic Pizzolatto and Richard Wenk, not only lacks the complexity of the THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN '60, it lacks complexity in plot and character -- period. The story is predictable -- and no, not just if you've seen John Sturges's film. You can always count on "good" defeating "evil," but here you will also guess who dies when, who fights who, what scene comes next, and when it's time for a patented Chris Pratt quip. While disappointing, I have to admit, it's comforting like a bowl of chicken soup, an easy watch that won't impose or overstay it's welcome.

It also gives me an opportunity to heap praise on Fuqua's cast, each of whom (with the exceptions of Washington's Chisolm and maybe Hawke's Goodnight) are left to do all the heavy-lifting for backstory and motivation. Fuqua benefits from having so many capable actors bringing their creative energies to these roles, actors with presence, dedicated to embodying the paper-thin cut-outs the script offers.

Washington anchors the picture with the quiet strength he's been bringing to roles for decades. Pratt brings his Chris Pratt© charm, and the chemistry he has with Washington and Garcia-Rulfo (like the chemistry Hawke shares with Lee) really grounds the film. Speaking of Hawke, he elaborates on the PTSD implied by Robert Vaughn 50 years ago to great effect. Sensmeier's Red Harvest is a man of few words, so it's a feat that he never gets lost in the shuffle. His presence is felt in each scene he is in, much like Lee, who manages to craft a character the stands of his own despite being joined at the hip with Hawke for most of the film. And we can't forget D'Onofrio's Horne, who is the definition of eccentricity -- in voice, mannerisms, and pure quirk -- without being a cartoony distraction. And as the bad guy, Sarsgaard plays Bogue with the edgy energy of a man who's just snorted a line or two of coke.

I will say that from the film's simplicity springs forth a certain romantic idealism about humanity, which I suppose explains the absence of any real tension between the characters. Goodnight is a former Confederate soldier with hundreds of Union kills under his belt, yet he and Sam Chisolm are dear friends. Killing indigenous folk for the government has been a cottage industry for Jack Horne, yet he can work with Red Harvest, and vice versa. (All while explicitly aligning progress, capitalism, and technological advancement with Bogue.)

Still, Fuqua has an eye for framing and a decent grasp of the balancing act required to tell a story with so many characters. (I say decent because sometimes we lose sight of different characters for too long.) And there genuine moments of awe -- for the scope, for the scale, for the beauty -- and great humor. And I appreciate the acknowledgement that the frontier was much more diverse than your old-school Western would have you believe, though I wish it didn't feel like some exec told Fuqua, "You got your diverse cast, let's not push it."

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke, is rated PG-13 for extended and intense sequences of Western violence, and for historical smoking, some language and suggestive material.

Photo credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and Columbia Pictures

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