They were seven men who fought like an army … against an army
Fifteen years after “Training Day”, Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke join forces with director Antoine Fuqua to become “The Magnificent Seven” with Chris Pratt and Vincent D’Onofrio. The film is an update of the 1960 classic that starred Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, and Eli Wallach; that one was an American remake of 1954’s “Seven Samurai”.
#Mag7 is set in the year 1879, where the town of Rose Creek are under the terror and tyranny of land baron Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) and his hired lawmen. When her husband Matthew (Matt Bomer) was murdered right in front of her by Bogue, widow Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) seeks revenge and righteousness in the form of good-guy-in-black Sam Chisolm (Washington), a bounty hunter who then recruits these six men:
- Goodnight Robicheaux (Hawke), a sharpshooter who fought with Chisolm during the Civil War yet this “angel of death” remains haunted by it.
- Luke Farraday (Pratt), a charming gambler
- Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), Goodnight’s knife-wielding loyal manservant
- Jack Horne (D’Onofrio), a big, strong man who’s also good with an ax – and also good at taking scalps.
- Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), a wanted outlaw
- Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier), an Comanche who’s an expert with a bow and arrow.
Together, the seven rides for an impossible job in helping the people of Rose Creek free their town from the ruthless Bogue with their own brand of justice.
This “Magnificent Seven”, though, should have been the magnificent eight with Bennett’s strong-willed and determined Emma joining the fight. #Mag7 is kinda like “The Equalizer” of the Old West with Denzel’s Chisolm, but this movie is still as entertaining and as good as the original – and that is difficult to say. But is it difficult that #Mag7 will become a legend like the original? That may be impossible, but with Denzel Washington in it, all things … might be impossible.