The Magnificent Seven Overview

                                    The Magnificent Seven (2016)

Directed by: Antoine Fuqua

Screenplay by: Nic Pizzolatto, Richard Wenk

Starring: Denzel Washington, Chris Patt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, Hayley Bennett, Peter Sarsgaard.

Expectations do not bear a conundrum. Take movies, for instance. You experience a great film and then, when it’s time to make your conscience aware of another feature film, the former expects to relive the same greatness. Even more, if it’s the same genre. This is not a deliberate effort, but the algorithm of brain’s evolution is honed in such a manner. The same expectation which the DC fanatics writhe with; post Christopher Nolan’s thrilling and philosophical Batman saga.

The gripping genre: ‘Wild West’ or simply, ‘Western’, invoke a carnivorous, blood-thirsty and passionate vibe within me and many of you, perhaps. ‘Django Unchained’, ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’, ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ and many other Western movies have set a tone, in which the cowboys, their savage antagonists (irony), the timid victim, altogether create crackerjack plots and hence, give rise to a magnificent story. In The Magnificent Seven, I couldn’t find such magnificence. In the following statements, I will explain how this movie failed to parallel my expectations. 

The story is the backbone of a movie. Details are what should be pondered upon, before finalizing the script. Should a writer wonder whether each dialogue delves into the moral fibre of the character and whether he/she is writing an original piece or just following a mediocre dogma? Yes, he should! This movie lacked a sturdy backbone. A woman’s quest to avenge the death of her husband by hiring seven talented hunters to raise hell against a powerful trader and his army, could have led to a visual poetry, perfectly grand to be inducted into the ‘Cult-classic’ category, in the years to come. But again, the writers got allured by the charms of dogma.

It is certain that I cannot judge the deeds of a director in a particular movie, in a manner that professional directors would do. It is also certain that I am not blind. Being naïve is a tangible choice. In this case, I ignore the choice. Where some scenes - like the wide shot of Denzel Washington and Hayley Bennett riding their horses against the tangerine dusk or Byung-hun Lee and Ethan Hawke training the spooked farmers or the initial skirmish between The Seven and Bartholomew Bogue’s (the trader) men or some perfectly timed close-up shots exposing the emotions of the struggling victors in the final war – made me think that the director, Antoine Fuqua is capable of visualising an ascending linear narration; the rest of the movie made it clear that he just wants to show us a replica of a Marvel Studio’s war story with cowboys and ”Texicans” . War stories, that can leave only a sixth-grader, bedazzled.

The tea was brewed with a behemoth potential and the cup was strong enough to carry it, but the saucer was faint-hearted. It was either scared or inapt for the duo. The tea was poured and the cup moulded it into a magnificent shape, but, on touches the cup to the saucer and the saucer quivers. The cup dangles around the saucer’s curb and the tea spills. Though the cup does not fall, it spills the good half of the tea. The person watches the entire action and now with a stained desire sips only the remainder. He knows that the tea is divine, that the cup has its base well-guarded, and that it’s the saucer which robbed the divinity of the act of drinking a cuppa full of tea.

Saucer – The Script, the mediocre direction by the director.

Cup – The sets, setting and the occasionally displayed aesthetic side of the director.

TEA – THE ACTORS AND THE ACTRESS IN THE LEADING ROLES.

P.S.      I kept imagining Daniel Day-Lewis in the role of Bartholomew Bogue (the antagonist), just because There Will Be Blood. Haha?