A TRULY "MAGNIFICENT 7" BY COLIN B M WOOD

A TRULY “MAGINIFECENT 7”

Written by: Colin B M Wood – 11/27/1969 – Hihgnoon ET

I really was hesitant to bring my 9 year old to a PG-13 film. Especially, the type of film that recently has garnered various huge awards at the Globes and Oscars. The likes of most westerns these days include lots of gory violence, swearing, sex and what have you...Just turn to many television shows and you can find this stuff now, especially with the onslaught of Netflix and Hulu films for mature audiences.

Again, did I really want to bring my youngest to his first western yet?

Well, I took a chance, and boy did it pay off!

I prefaced our viewing of the film with some western history for my son, and what he might see in the film, and how different life was in the 1800's out west. He looked at me, and said it sounded boring. I laughed, and said, “sure, that's what I thought before I saw The Outlaw Josey Wales on HBO around 9 years old myself. From that moment on, I realized that if I had a previous life, it was in the West for sure! Ever since I was 9, I have been obsessed with the western. I don't mean the long, drawn out boring ones that would plague our television set on Saturday afternoons in the 1970's, but the kind that the best actors made. The John Waynes, the Clint Eastwoods, the Ronald Reagans, Gary Cooper, Kirk Douglas, and so many more.

So many of these older western actors also starred in other style movies, but nothing as diverse as the cast of the newest installment of Magnificent 7 have portrayed in their amazing careers. Especially, our star of this re-imagining by the incredibly talented director Antoine Fuqua who has brought us other intricately directed films such as Training Day and Olympus Has Fallen, just to mention a couple. If anyone knows how to take an amazing cast, and grill up a diverse cast, with a great script, and create the most tantalizing shoot out in movie history, it is Mr. Fuqua. Led by his intense direction, from the beginning of the film to the end, one might find themselves actually on the edge of their seats, awaiting the big shootout scene. Antoine Fuqua and the gang do not disappoint, for what seems like a 20 minutes long shootout, that has you hooting and hollering for the good guys!

An amazingly crafted group of talent led by Denzel Washington in Yul Brenner's original role of Chisolm, and the always humorous, yet deep Christ Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-Hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Martin Sensmeir as the 7 heroes, stir up completely different characterizations that have you chuckling, dropping your jaw, and wildly entertained for 2 full hours, that did not seem long enough when it was over.

The acting was superb, the lines were perfectly laid out, and the scenery was stupendous. Along with an amazing musical score which was not easily designed, first led by the amazing, and late James Horner, Simon Franglen finished up with a heart pounding and tantalizing score, which had to include the original theme composed by the late Elmer Bernstein.

To say that this was the perfect family western to take your son to for the first time, is an understatement. If you can rent it soon for your kids, do so. It is filled with fun, adventure, no sex, no swearing, plenty of historical content and references, and sends you all on a superb ride of your life, when the big shoot out hits the screen. I've been watching westerns for over 40 years, and never saw a shoot out like this one. Director Fuqua deserves a tip of the hat, and maybe even an award for this adaptation of a time-keeper.

My son left the movie with a huge smile, wide eyes, and lots of questions about the 1800's, and boy was his blood boiling from the excitement of a good old western shoot out!