When Bartholomew Bogue turns up to steal land in a small village, it is up to seven gun men to come together to help save everything.
I want to just mention that I have not really seen many Westerns but seemed to have seen a couple more recently. They do tend to build up rather slowly to a shootout which is always well and truly worth the wait. This film is no different with that, it does take some getting going. But that was certainly needed for some character development with the seven and getting a little bit of background about them.
Chisolm is the leader as he agrees to help Emma Cullen win her village back from Bogue. Recruiting men he knows will be turned by the reward money on offer. I thought it was good to see how he managed to get them to join him, all very good at shooting (obviously) and a little bit crazy. I mean come on seven of them against what turns into an army? But that is what makes it very exciting.
The performances are engaging enough and I found myself getting well and truly into the film. As you can tell I ended up waiting a while since the release and it ended up more that it was the only film on at the new Cineworld a little bit further away than my usual one. I am therefore very pleased that I caught up with it.
You cannot help but notice they have tried to be extremely politically correct with the character choices, including black, white, Asian, Mexican and an Indian (Native American) to really please well everyone. It also gives the chance for a little bit of banter within the script and film which actually works very well in its favour. Most of the humor coming from Chris Pratt as Josh Faraday who really does come across as such a likeable character because of his attitude. Let’s face it Pratt really does do that type of role so well, playing to his strengths!
That certainly seems to be something they have done well playing to the strengths of the characters. Getting them attempting to train up the people of the village to be able to defend it and fight for themselves. That certainly leads to some more amusing scenes, it certainly does not take itself to seriously and has a very good balance.
Denzel Washington in the leading role is always going to be such a positive. I actually loved seeing him in this totally different genre to what we are used to from him as it really does show his fantastic range and ability acting. Especially considering his recent films haven’t be totally great. This one is different. Adding in Ethan Hawke as well to bounce off at times creates some good scenes as well.
Overall, I was left very impressed with the efforts made in this film from performance to the difference scenes from the many actors involved. The seven really do get you on side and you want to see them succeed. Is Peter Sarsgaard typecast as a bad guy? As he really does seem to have loads of those roles, but I guess he always manages to have a horrible creepy persona about his characters! Lots of fun to be had in this Wild West romp!