Magnificent 7 - Movie Review

This movie was good. It had tons of  flying bullets, great cinematography, well developed characters, and a satisfying ending. It was a stereo-typical good guys versus bad guys Western,but it wasn't at all banal. And the ending was explosive! The only problem that I did have with the plot though is that the villain identifies himself as a capitalist. It is only one small line at the beginning of the movie, so it really wasn't that big of a deal, but I was a bit on the defensive for about 10 minutes. Thankfully, the movie gets going. And just to clarify, the villain wasn't a capitalist, he was a tyrant, him saying he's a capitalist is very misleading. 

So the villain takes over a mining town, abuses and kills a bunch of the villagers and takes away their guns! I wanted a little bit of a "right wing" agenda there, but I never go it! I wanted Mr. Chisolm (Denzel) to tell them that they should never let anyone take away their guns. Actually, one of the first things the Magnificent 7 does for the townspeople is arm them to help them defeat their oppressors!  

I was grateful for the lack of sexual exploitation of women that tends to be the norm in Westerns. There were prostitutes, but they just floated around in the background and were not in many of the screen shots. The female lead, Mrs. Emma Cullen (Haley Bennet) is fresh and a natural beauty. She doesn't woo over any of the Magnificent 7 nor gives a forced faux-tough-girl-anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better perception. She's real and I enjoyed cheering for her throughout the movie. 

The movie ended well. I was a bit shocked about who died and who didn't die. There is some depth to the movie that wasn't obvious at first and I was glad for that surprise.  

I did expect the movie to be funny and it didn't let me down. The writers did a great job with the witty jokes and comebacks. The Mexican in the Mag 7 gang saying "cabron" all the time did get a little old for me. My mother is Mexican, and neither I or she speak like that - well maybe my uncle does. Either way, it was just over used. It was funny the first 10 times, but after that I was like, "I get it! You're Mexican!" Thankfully he wasn't portrayed as a stereotypical drunken, womanizer Mexican , oh wait, never mind. It was funny though! 

The acting was great. Ethan Hawke did a marvelous job portraying Goodnight Robicheaux, a Civil War hero suffering with PTSD.  

To the Christian: There were a couple of swear words and the name of the Lord was used in vain. The movie is violent, but not gory. People are killed with guns, explosives and arrows. There are some dirty jokes towards the end of the movie. The church plays as an undertone in the movie - both the opening scene that sets the plot, and the tragic ending of the movie take place in the church. And the preacher is portrayed to have respect among his parishoners. 

Recommendations: I recommend this movie to the Western lover and to those who prefer tragedies. Also any Denzel fans, the man still looks great - he's 61 years old!