The Tale Of The Seven Samurai-Oops-Denzel Washington’s The Magnificent Seven (2016)-A Film Review

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell

The Magnificent Seven, starring Denzel Washington, 2016    

No question every once in a while this reviewer likes to view a good shoot ‘em up in the old cowboy Western tradition that he grew up with in the black and white (film and virtues of the sides) 1950s. Of course the beauty of the film under review, the 2016 version of The Magnificent Seven, is that it revisits the theme first started with the Japanese version of this idea, The Seven Samurai, and later taken up by the original film of a group of small seemingly disinterested warriors coming to avenge the doings of the evil ones against the small honest folk. Fortunately since the plot line of this version is emphatically not a replay of the original it works rather better than expected if you hide the kids from the constant gunfire.    

Here is how the thing played out. Mister Bad (only the names change) has run rough-shot over a small farming community out West once gold was discovered there. In order to clear the area Mister Bad tried every trick in the board including murder and mayhem to drive the settlers out. Then one brave citizen, a woman whose husband had been murdered in cold blood for the slightest resistance, got in contact with Sam Chisolm, played by Denzel Washington, who as an arresting officer of some sort, the law in some instances, seemed to be able to handle himself in tough spots. He balked at first but when he found out who the villain was he was ready to move heaven and earth to help the small folk (he also as the film ended had a very personal motive since Mister Bad had killed his kin in Kansas to fuel his greedy empire).       

Needless to say one man, even a good man with a gun could not face the onslaught Mister Bad could bring by himself. So the early part of the film is spent rounding up the other six who will be the core of the resistance (and if you included the woman solicitor who was handy with a gun herself you had eight). Yeah, seven is still enough against a massed army as long as they are good and disinterested. The only startling thing is who makes up the group this time with a Chinese and Native American on the good side and of course Sam is black and a leader which reflects the real Old West a little better than when I was a kid. The rest of the film is spent figuring a suitable defense using the poorly trained settlers as part of the defense. Then those tasks out of the way there is the big blowout with the defenders holding their own in the end despite Mister Bad’s bringing in of a rapid fire Gatling gun that mowed many citizens down. But you know old Sam will have his vengeance in the end in the mano y mano face-off with Mister Bad. Yeah, a good shoot ‘em up.