The Magnificent Seven

**These magnificent seven are politically correct and historically inaccurate, but still far more fun than any sequel to the first film.** “Magnificent Seven” – the original film – was a remake of a Japanese production, and ended up being followed by an unnecessary and rather poor succession of sequels. Only the Japanese original and the early American film remain for posterity, which is a classic in its own right. What we have here turns out to be a remake of the remake, and despite its many merits, it doesn't make us forget our first love. The film has two big points in its favor: the production, luxurious and detailed, and the quality of the cast involved. The script presents the same story that we already know, but structured differently and with different types of actors, in addition to being entirely in the USA, and not in Mexico. That was another point in its favor, as the story of the first film had already been virtually copied, chewed up and dismantled by the sequels that followed. I liked the work of Denzel Washington, an impeccable actor and perfectly comfortable with action movies. Ethan Hawke is very supportive and does some quality solo work as well. Haley Bennett is also excellent. Chris Pratt, Vincent d'Onofrio, Lee Byung-Hun and all the others help, but they don't capture our interest or really stand out. Peter Sarsgaard, the villain, did a good job considering the weaknesses of the material received: the character appears little, has almost nothing to do and, in the end, inside the church, he has a behavior that does not match anything that had happened so far. there. Technically, the film features a huge amount of effects-laden action and high-quality CGI. Antoine Fuqua knew how to understand how the film should be, honoring its predecessor without, however, copying it. The film has excellent effects, good costumes and good sets. The production paid attention to the period details, which does not prevent some minor anachronisms, which were not a substantial problem. The action scenes were well executed and the film will certainly please fans of the genre, and the soundtrack has a certain epic flavor that goes well and harmonizes well with the (already historic) musical theme of the film, which was rerecorded for the new production. These are all qualities, and minor flaws. Where I really feel that the film failed was in the casting of some of the actors. After the recent controversies in the industry (which involved not only the infamous accusations of harassment, but also the discrimination of professionals based on color or ethnicity), there was an effort to counteract bad publicity with actors who were black, Native American or Latinos in all sorts of characters. I'm not against it, but I think there are characters better suited to it than others, and I doubt, for example, that a Native American would pair well with a group of mostly white gunslingers in the late 19th century. As much as political correctness is appeased, it is an idea that goes against historical verisimilitude. Another problem with this film is the attempts to introduce humor, both in the situations and in the dialogues: they are so bad and so shaky that it would be better if they had removed them from the final version.

***Muscular Western headed by Denzel Washington is superior to the hokey original*** A woman (Haley Bennett) seeking justice after the murder of her husband enlists a bounty hunter (Denzel Washington), who gathers six others, to defend the woman’s southwestern town against a ruthless army hired by a destructive industrialist (Peter Sarsgaard). Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-Hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Martin Sensmeier play the other six gunfighters. "The Magnificent Seven" (2016) is a reimagining of the 1960 Western, which itself was based on Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" (1954). While the plot is contrived the original version had a stellar cast, a magnificent score and great locations, but it was ruined by hokey script flaws. For instance, the teen Chico (Buchholz) was able to effortlessly infiltrate Calvera's bandits, utterly fooling them, even though there were only 32 of them by this point (rolling my eyes). Even if Calvera & his brigands failed to make out Chico's face, which is a big IF, his dialogue & accent would've given him away. Keep in mind that Chico was just an unseasoned teen. Another example is the villagers' sudden cowardly turnaround (betrayal), which totally contradicted their earlier resolve. Yes, I realize they learned that the bandits weren't run-off and that they were going to return to the village out of desperation, but there were only like 30-32 bandits left at this juncture and the combined forces of the seven gunmen and the fighting villagers now had the opportunity to annihilate the thugs for good. This version of course eliminates such idiotic writing and ups the ante with the action. The movie's bloody, but no more so than recent Westerns like "3:10 to Yuma" (2007) and "Django Unchained" (2012). If you like those ones, as well as oldies like “Duel at Diablo” (1966) and “The Outlaw Josey Wales” (1976), you’ll like this one. Washington stands tall in the main role while Jennifer Lawrence lookalike Haley Bennett is stunning and superior to Lawrence. The movie runs 2 hours, 12 minutes and was shot in Arizona, New Mexico and one shot in Colorado (Miller Mesa, Ridgway) with the main set being in Jackson, Louisiana. GRADE: B

My only objection with this version is the use of the Gatling gun. Though I know it's only a movie and it creates more excitement, the gun never fired that many rounds per load. That said, I still enjoyed the movie.