The Magnificent Seven

The story opens with a group of farmers convening in the town church to discuss what to do about Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard).  Bogue crashes the meeting with half a dozen armed goons and declares the irritating farmers to be standing in the way of capitalism and God, demonstrating that 1) he is an idiot and 2) that the movie wants to make a statement against the 'evils' of capitalism.  Bogue bullies the townsfolk to either sell their land at a loss or suffer the consequences.  He then murders an unarmed man who dared to speak against him and burned down the church.  See, this is what robber barons did in the Old West.

 

Chisolm (Denzel Washington) is basically a bounty hunter who is hired by Emma (Haley Bennett), the wife of the man murdered by Bogue.  Chilsolm immediately recruits Faraday (Chris Pratt), a gambler.  More are recruited on the way.  There is Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke) the sharpshooter, Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee) the Knife Thrower, Jack Horne (Vincent D'Onofrio) the Mountain Man, Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) the Mexican, and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier) the Comanche.  Of course, it must be remembered that Emma and Teddy (Luke Grimes) are with them from start to finish, taking part in most of the fights; Magnificent 9?  The seven arrive in town and, amazingly, Bogue has left better than a score of men to keep the townsfolk and the miners in line.  The seven make short work of the goons and then send the corrupt sheriff to tell Bogue that his reign has ended.

 

The seven plus two head out to the mines and rescue the miners from more of Bogue's goons.  Really?  It is like Bogue is a slave master, not a paragon of the free market.  Can we make this capitalist any more evil?  Yes, we can.  When the timid and whimpering sheriff arrives in Sacramento to inform Bogue that a band of men had killed his goons, Bogue shoots him.  Bogue goes on to lecture him while the man dies at his feet.  Yes, another cold blooded murder because that is what capitalists do, don't you know.  Bogue commands his chief goons to gather men so they can deal with these rebels.

 

Despite being hired guns, Bogue's men have no idea how to fight as a unit.  There are no tactics at all.  During their main charge, they ride into a pair of massive explosions but the survivors continue to charge.  Then gunmen pop up from hidden trenches and start blazing away at the exposed riders but the survivors continue to charge.  They charge into cul-de-sacs and then ride in circles while they are cut down by riflemen from above.  There is no effort to secure a building and then move on from there.  Killed by the dozen and yet not one decides to retreat and regroup.  That is not how mercenaries operate; you don't get paid if you are dead.  After losing the majority of his force, Bogue demonstrates just how evil a capitalist can be.  He orders his remaining men to blaze away at the town with his Gatling Gun.  Wait!  You had a Gatling Gun and decided to use it after you had lost scores of men in a reckless charge?  In what was meant to be a scene of bravery and sacrifice, one of the seven manages to take out the Gatling Gun and all the men around it.  Reduced to himself and two men, Bogue rides into town.  Seriously!  And then he is baffled when his two men are killed and he is alone.  Wow, how did this imbecile live this long?  Oh, and then he begs for his life.  Ugh.  He takes refuge in the remains of the church he had burned a few weeks before.  The clichés are plentiful, so plentiful as to be frustrating.

 

The movie would be better named Emma Cullen, the Magnificent Seven and the Town Militia.  Lots of townsfolk are involved in the battle, making the seven more like officers of the militia.  Considering the amount of time they had to prepare and the numbers for defending the position, the town should have done better with competent leadership.

 

Antoine Fuqua is a hypocrite.  Here is a man who has gotten rich off of capitalism making a film that is critical of capitalism.  Then again, it may be he is too stupid to understand what capitalism is.

 

Capitalism (noun): an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

 

The movie industry is a privately-owned for profit enterprise.  Does Fuqua propose that the state fund his movies with the notion of no profit?  Would he like to earn prevailing wage for his directing?  I can guarantee his income will plummet under such a system.  He, every actor on screen, the producers, and all the rest are engaged in capitalism.

 

This is the second Antoine Fuqua film with a 'historical' setting that I have seen and he needs to avoid them.  King Arthur (2004) was a travesty and this is equally bad.  He should stick with movies that take place in the present and avoid political messages that he is ill-equipped to explain.  One of the reasons the original movie was set in Mexico is that law and order was far less effective there.  In the United States, the townsfolk could have petitioned the governor to do something about Bogue the murderer and his hired goons.  There were territorial marshals, circuit judges, even the US Cavalry in a conflict of this size.

 

Two notable 'private' wars in the Old West would be the Lincoln County War (which saw Billy the Kid as a combatant) and the Johnson County War in Wyoming (badly depicted in the infamous box office bomb, Heaven's Gate).  Each conflict saw perhaps 2 dozen people killed.  This movie saw that many killed in the teaser gunfight!  The gunfight at the OK Corral only saw 3 killed!  Perhaps this movie takes place in West World, the new HBO series.

 

Best avoided.