Sennett: The Magnificent… “Eight”? A review

I remember filling out the final answers to my mid-term examination and racing down to the art museum for a special screening of the 1925 silent film, Ben-Hur. A classically decorated peristyle theater welcomed a live organist and a crowd of hundreds to partake in a collective cinematic experience. The audience seemed to move as one. They laughed together, gasped together, and, most importantly, they applauded together when Judah Ben-Hur won the chariot race.

Few action scenes in the history of American cinema are as iconic, and heavily referenced, as the chariot races in both Ben-Hur (1925) and William Wyler’s 1959 remake. And yet, after decades of discussion, audiences still find an emotional thrill in seeing Judah take victory. The excitement of 90 years ago is alive and well. This scene has been successfully captured twice, but recently, Hollywood decided to give it another go.

In addition to re-thinking Ben-Hur, The Magnificent Seven, made only a year after Wyler’s epic, has also been filmed again. Once Akira Kurosawa demonstrated his command over the language of cinema with Seven Samurai (1954), Hollywood could not wait to adapt his story.

The western genre seemed like a perfect conversion from the feudal Japanese landscape presented in Kurosawa’s film. After all, it was the American western that may have inspired him in the first place.

There is nothing wrong with re-adapting something—especially something created by a master of their form, like Kurosawa. What art student has never tried their hand at recreating the works of DaVinci or Van Gogh? Art is always referencing its own past. Modern films are no exception.

Remaking Kurosawa’s films is a bit of a national past-time. Yojimbo (1961), The Hidden Fortress (1958), as well as the epic Seven Samurai are hot topics for re-imagining in the States. Often times, the American filmmakers will adopt an entirely original spin to Kurosawa’s work, such as Pixar’s A Bug’s Life.

The latest version of The Magnificent Seven, directed by Antoine Fuqua, does nothing new with its source material, other than perhaps muddling the philosophy that was so elegantly stated by Kurosawa.

Once again, we are given a western version of the original story. A small town of farmers being harassed by a team of bandits call to the help of seven unlikely warriors to protect them.

Not unlike Kurosawa’s film, many of the visuals in the new version of Seven are breathtaking.

I was amazed by how Director of Photography, Mauro Fiore, was able to command light. The interiors of bars and houses were dark. Never did these scenes feel artificially lit like in so many period films.

There was only one problem with this: The editing went by so fast, I didn’t have a chance to properly admire the images.

The subjects of the photography did not help me admire the work of Fiore, either. The characters were crude, underwritten deductions of Kurosawa’s original band of warriors.

Even though Fuqua attempted to inject racial diversity into the “seven,” if I were blind, I don’t think I would have been able to tell one from another.

I was glad to at least see a female take a place in the lineup—until I realized there were actually eight warriors on screen.

Looking at the poster outside of the theater, I saw that actress, Haley Bennett, was nowhere to be seen. Could it be that even though her character is one of the most important to the plot, that she is, in fact, not a member of the “magnificent” lineup?

Maybe the film is not so progressive after all.

Problematic marketing aside, Magnificent Seven holds its biggest difference from Kurosawa in its unimaginative dryness.

Kurosawa’s films are never dry. While mildly entertaining at best, the film itself even acknowledges that it could not stand on its own. The credits sequence relied on the famous 1960 score by Elmer Bernstein.

As I left the theater, with Bernstein’s music playing behind me, I was reminded: This film is merely an homage to two classics I would much rather be watching.

The resurrection of Ben-Hur and The Magnificent Seven is redundant; they don’t need resurrecting. They are living and breathing.

Your soul will thank you if you save your money and simply watch Seven Samurai instead of this new attempt, even if you have already seen it 100 times.

Evan Sennett is a sophomore studying Film and English Literature, and he is also an IC cartoonist.