I enjoyed this. It’s not the original, but not much can be. But if you take it for what it is, it’s a pretty good Western. I was fascinated by Ethan Hawke’s character, a Confederate veteran with PTSD. And I crave a background story about Vincent D’Onofrio’s character, we only got bits and pieces of him.
My biggest complaint is we didn’t get the iconic original theme song till the closing credits, and then only for a bit. Though they teased us with similar sounding music during the film.
I liked it but it could have been fleshed out more with character detail. Maybe we’ll get a longer cut for home video? Or they could just add my nephew’s one line and death scene. He was kind of bummed about those being left out. (At least you still see him in the theatrical version and they left his name in the credits.)
I just saw and enjoyed it. And regarding the film score, I learned from a story on NPR that James Horner was in the process of writing it when he died in a plane crash. So Simon Franglen, who was arranger and score producer, finished the score.
So if you’re a fan of James Horner’s scores, you might want to see this film.
the film subverted the trope that the black guy dies first. In fact, I think only the minorities survived (the black guy, the Comanche and the Mexican).
Should be okay for that age group. My stepsons want to see it (though mostly to see my nephew). It’s violent of course, but not particularly graphic so it’s not much worse than what you’d see on tv.
So the remake of The Magnificent Seven came out last week, and I caught it over the weekend. Couldn’t find a thread on it so I figured I’d start one here. Due to spoilers, nothing in my first post.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I haven’t seen the original nor The Seven Samurai, but both are on my watch list now. Anyways, here are some disjointed thoughts:
I get the impression they were angling for a classic western, with many of the cliches that come with that. I could have done without one of the characters getting theatrically shot through a balcony and off the roof of a building. Kind of ruined what should have been a dramatic moment.
Also, as a movie goer, every time I see the heroes planning for a gunfight and decide that someone will be sharpshooting from a church tower, I can’t help but presume that they’re going to die when the bad guys decide to turn their biggest gun on said big exposed tower. Guess that’s the tradeoff for being able to see everything.
Bogue starts the film by committing blasphemy and setting fire to a church. At the end of the film, he tries to justify his actions as being God’s will before scrambling into the same burnt out church hoping for refuge when Chisolm comes to kill him. If I’m not mistaken, Bogue ended up dying on the same spot he made his speech from at the start of the film.
Every time I saw Chisolm’s pistol in that reverse-grip holster, all I could think about was how difficult that must make to draw his pistol. But I guess it looked cool.
I liked it. Washington and Pratt were excellent and carried the film. Ethan Hawke did well and whoever was the guy who played the Mexican bandit made good work.
I found Haley Bennet’s character annoying; she was rammed down our throats as a “A Strong, Confident, Woman” ™, having been a helping of the “Damsel in Distress” ™ about 35 seconds earlier. I thought maybe after* Jessica Jones* writers were learning how to make realistics female characters as opposed to types; yeah.
Overall a good couple of hours. Don’t expect much come awards time though.
I saw the Magnificent Seven yesterday and Washington is great in it but it’s not as good as its predecessor. Far too much time is spent on getting the gang together. The way they did it would have made more sense if more of them had survived, paving the way for a sequel.
The things they try to do differently end up being lame. The twist of the gunfighter with PTSD who runs away and - of course - comes back. The twist of the baddies having a super-weapon, a machine gun - I’d have used a cannon and destroyed the village from a nice, safe distance. And, instead of using the machine gun first, the villain only uses it after the good guys have killed most of the villain’s hired guns. But it really just spends too long getting the group together. They have an extended scene setting up each character and too little time on the interplay between the characters.
The violence is moderately kid-safe. People die, but there’s next to no blood or gore.
The music was good, with teases and hints of the classic’s theme now and then, and then the full thing at the end.
Yeah, if anything, I was honestly expecting the widow to replace Goodnight as the sharpshooter to round out the Seven. Him coming back in the tah-dah nick of time (just in time to warn everyone to grab some cover before the Gatling opened up on them) seemed just too cliche, especially since we never get any opportunity to see how he comes around to deciding to return. Did he see something on the way, have a heart-to-heart with a random passer-by a la Bruce Banner in The Avengers? We just don’t know. He ran off, and then changed his mind and ran back, as easy as that.
Over on TVTropes (go there at your own peril, it’s a bit addictive), someone pointed out that aside from Chisolm and the widow, the only main characters who survive are the ones who didn’t get any character development. So if they decide to do a sequel, I guess they have those characters lined up for us to learn more about.
Also, regarding the machine gun, most Gatling guns were chambered for rifle rounds, meaning the Gatling likely didn’t have significantly farther reach than all of those off-brand Pinkerton agents carrying repeating rifles. If the intent was to raze the town and make an example of its residents, he would have been better off just forming a firing line and having them volley fire into the town rather than hauling the gun out. Or, as you mention, just use the gun first.
It would have been of limited effectiveness with the guys huddled in the trenches, but then Bogue didn’t know about the trenches.
Really, the tactics involved in that whole fight were rather problematic for Bogue’s men, but they did specifically point out earlier that against anything other than lightly armed civilians, the Blackstone agents were strictly speaking Amateur Hour and didn’t really know how to fight.
As I said in the other thread, this movie subverted the “black guy dies first” trope and in fact of the seven, only minorities (the black guy, the Comanche and the Mexican) survived. The three white members of the group of seven (along with the Asian) died in the climactic battle.
And I wondered why Chisolm’s message to Bogue was to remind him about Lincoln, Nebraska when they had met in Kansas.
There’s very little blood and gore and not a lot of swearing. Deaths are comic-book style in that people just fall down. There’s a scene or two with a vicious killing but the viciousness is off-screen. One example would be the old man stamping the heads of his assailants into bloody pulp.
I enjoyed it quite a bit. It’s a solid Western like you say. D’Onofrio stole his scenes for sure, in another example of his versatility as an actor. I didn’t even realize that was him until about halfway through. Hawke’s character was interesting as well. I kind of wish they’d spent more time on the Comanche and Vasquez though; they seemed like they could have been interesting, but weren’t really fleshed out too much.
I forgot about 'Japanese Magnificent Seven ’ I haven’t seen this movie in years . I loves foreign movies b/c they had subtitles and CC weren’t around yet.