This is a remake of an earlier Magnificent Seven, which was itself a westernized remake of the Japanese film The Seven Samurai. Each remake is inferior to its predecessor. The genre was well parodied in The Three Amigos (1986).
The film opens with the bad guy, Bart Bogue, terrorizing a peaceful western town because he wants the land for gold mining. Just to show you what a rogue is Bogue, he guns down several innocents and sets the church on fire. The pretty widow of one of his victims approaches a bounty hunter and hires him to protect the town.
The bounty hunter, played by Denzel Washington, assembles a gang of hard cases who all have uncanny skills in killing people. Because this is a modern remake, the gang of mercenaries has to be politically correct, ticking off all the right categories of minorities: there's an Indian, a Chinaman, a Mexican, all taking orders from a black man (this is supposed to be just after the Civil War!), with the widow thrown in for feminists.
The gang have one week to prepare defenses and train the hapless townspeople before Bogue and his army of Bogueymen fall upon them like the wolf on the fold.
The predictable mayhem ensues, during which the viewer is left to ponder questions like: why are there no representatives of other fashionable minorities - where is the homosexual, the handicapped, the Good Muslim? Why is Baddie Bogue just a greedy gold miner when he could have been the agent of a giant corporation dedicated to Global Warming? (Maybe they're saving this for the next remake.) Why is the music so insipid and nondescript, when they could have used the stirring soundtrack from the previous version? (Maybe they couldn't afford the royalties.) When is X going to kill Y (no spoilers here!) and end this melee? Luckily, I saw a version with subtitles, so was able to understand the dialogue, which I could not hear properly. I don't know if this was owning to bad sound recording, or poor projection facilities in the cinema.
Despite its predictability, the movie is competently made, and holds your attention. If you haven't seen the previous versions, it's worth a look.
The film opens with the bad guy, Bart Bogue, terrorizing a peaceful western town because he wants the land for gold mining. Just to show you what a rogue is Bogue, he guns down several innocents and sets the church on fire. The pretty widow of one of his victims approaches a bounty hunter and hires him to protect the town.
The bounty hunter, played by Denzel Washington, assembles a gang of hard cases who all have uncanny skills in killing people. Because this is a modern remake, the gang of mercenaries has to be politically correct, ticking off all the right categories of minorities: there's an Indian, a Chinaman, a Mexican, all taking orders from a black man (this is supposed to be just after the Civil War!), with the widow thrown in for feminists.
The gang have one week to prepare defenses and train the hapless townspeople before Bogue and his army of Bogueymen fall upon them like the wolf on the fold.
The predictable mayhem ensues, during which the viewer is left to ponder questions like: why are there no representatives of other fashionable minorities - where is the homosexual, the handicapped, the Good Muslim? Why is Baddie Bogue just a greedy gold miner when he could have been the agent of a giant corporation dedicated to Global Warming? (Maybe they're saving this for the next remake.) Why is the music so insipid and nondescript, when they could have used the stirring soundtrack from the previous version? (Maybe they couldn't afford the royalties.) When is X going to kill Y (no spoilers here!) and end this melee? Luckily, I saw a version with subtitles, so was able to understand the dialogue, which I could not hear properly. I don't know if this was owning to bad sound recording, or poor projection facilities in the cinema.
Despite its predictability, the movie is competently made, and holds your attention. If you haven't seen the previous versions, it's worth a look.