Fuqua’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ is less than

It's not often anymore that we get to see Westerns on the big screen, whether they're classics or new releases. So it's understandable that some Western fans would get excited about Antoine Fuqua's "The Magnificent Seven." Following is my review of that film, which I wrote for Spokane Public Radio: 

Last August, the British publication The Telegraph published a story under the headline “25 films set for reboot or remake.” Among the films listed were “An American Werewolf in London,” “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” and “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”

The article mentioned nothing about Antoine Fuqua’s remake of the 1960 film “The Magnificent Seven.” It may have been because Fuqua’s film, by then, was already in the can. Or it may have been because the 1960 film – directed by American filmmaker John Sturges – was itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film “Seven Samurai.”

Whatever the reason, the fact that Fuqua is not the only one working from past material makes it clear that Hollywood is less interested in pursuing fresh material than in retreading what has worked in the past. No wonder so many of the best filmmakers – David Fincher, for example, and Steven Zaillian – are stepping away from the big screen, if only temporarily, and working on projects for company’s such as HBO and Netflix.

Still, this review is not about the ongoing failures of Hollywood. It’s about Fuqua’s take on a classic movie story. Though, to be honest, the two may be much the same thing.

Fuqua’s film centers on a gunman, a “sworn” law officer named Chisolm (played by Denzel Washington). After hunting down a wanted man, Chisolm is asked to help free a mining town from the clutches of a despicable bad man named Barholomew Bogue (played by Peter Sarsgaard). To do so, he recruits a ragged band of six men, ranging from a quip-savvy cynic (Chris Pratt) and a one-time dead shot (Ethan Hawke) to a couple of guys whose native language isn’t even English (Mexico’s Manual Garcia-Rulfo and South Korea’s Byung-hun Lee).

The odds are heavily against them, of course, but the seven have justice on their side. Or, as is made all too clear, the righteousness of revenge. Either, as Chisolm says, works.

Fuqua, who is best known for his 2001 film “Training Day” – the film that won Washington his Best Actor Oscar – deserves credit for pulling together a technically proficient production. And, too, reflecting the times in which we live, Fuqua can be lauded for opting to cast his film with a sense of diversity – including a woman character no less, played by Haley Bennett – that would never have occurred either to Kurosawa or Sturges.

But … even though Fuqua clearly is making his own kind of movie, the question persists: How does it compare to the others? And the answer here is – even given its qualities – Fuqua’s movie is the lesser version.

It lacks the grandeur of Kurosawa’s three-hour plus effort. It lacks the old-school sense of honor that Sturges emphasized. Most of all, though, Fuqua’s movie lacks the character development that gives us actual reasons to care about each of the seven individual characters – and to mourn their obligatory passing.

In the end, Fuqua has made less a magnificent seven than, at best, a slightly better than average one.