Star Power Both films have it to spare, Both are fronted by an established, charismatic movie star (1960's Yul Brynner, 2016's Denzel Washington) With the exception of beefy journeyman Brad Dexter (yes, I can hear you saying, "Who?"),the rest of the l960 Seven went on to flourishing film or TV careers. It's too early for us to make any predictions about some of the relative unknowns who make up the 2016 roster......but the new version benefits from the cheeky star turn by Chris Pratt and those ever dependable scenery gobblers, Ethan Hawke and Vincent D'Onofrio.
Gunshots This may sound like movie buff nitpicking but it's damn important when discussing movies with sustained gun battles. As much as we love the 1960 film, we always considered its gunshot sound effects a major flaw.......the gunfire had a cheap, low-impact ring to it, like the sound editors lifted it out of an old Gene Autry/Roy Rogers serial. No problem, of course with the exaggerated Dolby Digital pow-pow-pow of the 2016 Seven. (Personally, we can't get enough of the gunshots in Spaghetti westerns.....every shot reverberates like a Civil War cannon.)
The Villain Through the distance of 57 years, we can still savor (but guiltily, I guess) Eli Wallach's almost operatic turn as the Mexican bandit Calvera. (You could say he's the original Trumpian "Bad Hombre") Okay, a New York method actor stomping around as the Frito Bandido would never fly today, but Wallach supplied exactly what the 1960 film required.....a powerhouse villain worthy of its formidable line up of heroes. (And for Wallach, merely a warmup for his ultimate south-of-the-border sleazebag in "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly") Here's where the 2016 remake blatantly drops the ball.......in place of Wallach's larger-than-life outlaw, the new version gives us the strutting little robber baron Bartholomew Bogue (which sounds like a villain name more appropriate for a Dudley Do-Right cartoon, for a guy who ties fair damsels to train tracks) Peter Sarsgaard plays this overdressed, righteously corrupt scum with enthusiasm, but even with a small army outfitted in Sergio Leone dusters, he comes across as featherweight and unimposing. Which is why the script reiterates his evil by having him routinely commit point-blank executions of unarmed people.
The Final Battle This is where you observe the great divide between the different eras of filmmaking. 1960's climactic showdown is standard boilerplate for a gun battle....years before the arrival of bursting blood squibs and slow motion death scenes. 2016's battle also plays out as typical for today's Multi-plex, tub 'o popcorn movie.......overlong, earsplitting, chopped into tiny bits and pieces by the film editors and photographed like a shooter arcade game, with pop-up bad guys who drop dead in every direction. The only thing missing is the game score appearing on the bottom of the screen......
The Actors And Their Characters The 2016 remake cast sweats mightily to equal the vivid charisma of the 1960 bunch, but they don't quite get there. Denzel Washington, however, is more than an equal to Yul Brynner, who depended a lot on his exotic appearance for impact.(And with his flat, robotic voice, Brynner perfectly played a robotic version of his character in the 1973 "Westworld") James Coburn's silently deadly knife thrower has been remade into an Asian martial arts guy. Robert Vaughan's PTSD gunfighter seems to be re-imagined as a laconic, legendary Civil War vet well played by Ethan Hawke. But there's nobody in the 1960 bunch who quite compares to the remake's burly, barely civilized mountain-man played by man-mountain Vincent D'Onofrio, our very own supercharged Brian Dennehy 2.0. He's our favorite of the 2016 Seven......he blatantly steals his introduction into the movie by lifting his voice octave up to the level of a talking teddy bear with a pull string in its back.
The Music The remake could not escape paying homage to arguably the 1960 film's greatest asset, the propulsive, instantly iconic Elmer Bernstein score, which over the years, solidified and enhanced the film's reputation as a classic. Sadly, the 2016 film also serves as a homage to the late James Horner, tragically killed in a plane crash. Overloaded with projects, Horner still managed to compose a strong worthy theme for the new Seven, even before he was able to view any footage. Punctuated with striking trumpet calls, and subtly recalling the Bernstein score, Horner's music painfully reminded us of how much we'll miss his talents.
The Verdict? 1960s "Magnificent Seven"....4 stars(****) for its cast and music....2016's "Magnificent Seven".....2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2)....the extra half star for Vincent D'Onofrio's always welcome over-the-top contribution.
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