The Magnificent Seven - Cowboy Avengers, Assemble
- Thread starter Marter
- Start date
Seven Samurai is far better. But because this one has an "all-star cast", it'll make bank instead of an Eastern film. Sad :,(
So a movie where the diversity of the cast is the biggest deal and most hyped aspect about it happens to be relatively bland and boring? Wow, haven't heard of that one before. Much like Dontnod's "Remember Me," if they'd spent less time patting themselves on the back, their hands wouldn't have been so tired when it came to making a good movie. And that's not me whining about diversity, because I actually like most of the main cast...well, minus Chris Pratt, but whenever I hear hype for something and they keep blathering on about the movie's/game's/whathaveyou's ground-breaking diversity, I know it's going to be a big pile of meh.
Westerns are pretty well liked the world over, especially classics like The Man with No Name trilogy, High Noon, and Once Upon a Time in the West. There are good westerns being made today as well, like the True Grit remake, Slow West, and Bone Tomahawk, not to mention western inflected stuff like No Country for Old Men.bjj hero said:
Ive seen some classics like the good the bad and the ugly, or that one with Gene Wilder and Richard Prior. They have been played over and over on TV for decades so it was always going to happen.09philj said:
I've not seen a modern Western in some time and dont know anyone, even in my extended social circle who has either. I have not seen nor heard of the modern films you have listed.
Django being the only exception, but that was seen as a Tarantino flick first and not seen by me.
"Beyond its diverse cast, which doesn't actually mean much inside the film..."
"I mean, an actual Native American is playing the role of a Native American, which is noteworthy - even though it shouldn't be."
But Marter, don't you know that the remake is the latest film to fall victim to political correctness within the Hollywood system? Don't you know that the only reason that a racially diverse cast was employed was to appease the social justice warriors? Don't you realize that by not boycotting this film, you're perpetuating the creative malaise of the film industry?
If you don't know any of these things, congratulations - you're a normal human being. ^_^
Speaking personally, as a non-American, I'm not that big on Westerns, and aside from Mr. Tucket which I read as a kid, I don't recall any major Western story that influenced me. That said, I'm a sucker for the 'space western' sub-genre - Firefly, WildStar, StarCraft, Cowboy Bebop, etc. I guess it's true that when you set a story in space, everything is made better.
"I mean, an actual Native American is playing the role of a Native American, which is noteworthy - even though it shouldn't be."
But Marter, don't you know that the remake is the latest film to fall victim to political correctness within the Hollywood system? Don't you know that the only reason that a racially diverse cast was employed was to appease the social justice warriors? Don't you realize that by not boycotting this film, you're perpetuating the creative malaise of the film industry?
If you don't know any of these things, congratulations - you're a normal human being. ^_^
At least in the scope of novels, short answer is yes, but it seems to be very much a generational thing. In one of the libraries that I work at, there's no shortage of Westerns in the large print (i.e. books for senior citizens) section, but I don't see them pop up in the general fiction section. A few years ago, when I was doing 'shelf weeding', a plenthora of Westerns were withdrawn from the system, though they're still there. I think there's still an audience for Westerns, but not nearly as much as there was half a century ago. Which does sync up with the film landscape at the time.bjj hero said:
Speaking personally, as a non-American, I'm not that big on Westerns, and aside from Mr. Tucket which I read as a kid, I don't recall any major Western story that influenced me. That said, I'm a sucker for the 'space western' sub-genre - Firefly, WildStar, StarCraft, Cowboy Bebop, etc. I guess it's true that when you set a story in space, everything is made better.
I'm still deeply confused as to the setup for this remake. The original 7 were hired by a poor, out of the way Mexican farming village who didn't seem to do much in way of trade or have much 'through traffic' if you get me. Whereas the town being bird dogged in the remake looks like it would be a fully fledged border town still within the continental United States. The town by my reckoning don't need to go through the trouble of getting hired guns since the both the US Marshals Service and the US Cavalry would object strongly to such things.
I did like Firefly.bjj hero said:
OT; Kudos (I suppose) for having an actual Native American playing a Native American. It's weird how it's a thing now. I suppose if they hadn't, people would be screaming the caps locks keys off their keyboards over whitewashing. I wonder if they did diversify over concerns the movie would be attacked over having an otherwise all-white cast. I really do hate second guessing sometimes, it can destroy what is otherwise supposed to be a good thing. Or at least one that is 2 1/2 out of 5.
I thought it was a pretty fun movie, but I suppose looking at it from a critical standpoint about halfway there does hit the mark for what it was. I got to see matinee, so it wasn't a horrible loss anyway.
Funny you should mention its diverse cast, as the consistency of racial tensions as that would be going on in this setting felt a bit unrealistic. That's not to say I want my westerns full of slurs or anything, but the fact that say, Chris Pratt is ragging on the Mexican, and even calls an Irishman a leprechaun, showing that there is some form of racial derision, then it just struck me as so odd that no one bats an eye at Denzel Washington for being an African-American. Sure, the first scene with him in it a lot of people are giving him funny looks, but it was when he walked into a saloon, and, well, he's the main character of a western, I'm not sure I've seen a western that didn't do that. Hell Star Wars did that. Everyone else, including the ex confederacy soldier all seem perfectly fine with him, which to me, just didn't feel consistent. Had they shown everyone loving or hating each other equally, this wouldn't have been an issue, but if there is one setting at which it only makes sense that an African-American would be treated differently, and very likely rather cruelly, it would be an antebellum United States. I mean hell, it could have made his character a lot more seep as to why he would help these people that do hate and deride him, rather than he's just another average dude with the ability to fire a gun. That's just me though, nothing wrong with wanting a story to be a little more racially friendly, hence why they only make the one or two jabs at the other people, but if you are willing to show racial tension at all, be a little more willing to show some of the ugliness of it.
Funny you should mention its diverse cast, as the consistency of racial tensions as that would be going on in this setting felt a bit unrealistic. That's not to say I want my westerns full of slurs or anything, but the fact that say, Chris Pratt is ragging on the Mexican, and even calls an Irishman a leprechaun, showing that there is some form of racial derision, then it just struck me as so odd that no one bats an eye at Denzel Washington for being an African-American. Sure, the first scene with him in it a lot of people are giving him funny looks, but it was when he walked into a saloon, and, well, he's the main character of a western, I'm not sure I've seen a western that didn't do that. Hell Star Wars did that. Everyone else, including the ex confederacy soldier all seem perfectly fine with him, which to me, just didn't feel consistent. Had they shown everyone loving or hating each other equally, this wouldn't have been an issue, but if there is one setting at which it only makes sense that an African-American would be treated differently, and very likely rather cruelly, it would be an antebellum United States. I mean hell, it could have made his character a lot more seep as to why he would help these people that do hate and deride him, rather than he's just another average dude with the ability to fire a gun. That's just me though, nothing wrong with wanting a story to be a little more racially friendly, hence why they only make the one or two jabs at the other people, but if you are willing to show racial tension at all, be a little more willing to show some of the ugliness of it.
At what point in the movie would there be time to relate something to that subject. Going by what you wrote, the film is the age old Western plot of "Bad guy taking over a town for gold, oil, land, etc.; towns people find person(s) to fight bad man; bad man is defeated and everything is right in the West once again." At what point would politics come up outside of the occasional jab or a character going through self-discovery without it feeling out of place?
And, then we have films like The Ridiculous 6 where the diversity of the cast is part of the joke. Also, why is it that people still consider it an "amazing" accomplishment to have an American Indian play an American Indian, or something similar, when it has been done for decades?Hawki said:
Not really. Having Native Americans be played by Native Americans in westerns has not been that common, most have been played by very tan Italians.Transdude1996 said:
Post-Guardians and pre-Vol.II, Chris Pratt would be the only draw for me, but this seems like a fairly empty headed remake of an already empty headed remake relative to Seven Samurai, so I'll give it a swerve just as I've always done with the older Magnificent Seven.
In the fairly lengthy list of remakes of Kurosawa films, I suppose A Fistful Of Dollars is the best example? I'm not exactly a great fan of Eastwood, but swapping out Toshiro Mifune for him certainly works better than swapping out Mifune or Takashi Shimura for any of the actors in the new Magnificent Seven remake/Seven Samurai adaptation.
In the fairly lengthy list of remakes of Kurosawa films, I suppose A Fistful Of Dollars is the best example? I'm not exactly a great fan of Eastwood, but swapping out Toshiro Mifune for him certainly works better than swapping out Mifune or Takashi Shimura for any of the actors in the new Magnificent Seven remake/Seven Samurai adaptation.
I've never seen a western, I don't think any of my friends have either and the only time westerns have come up in conversation has been Red Dead Redemption, which I didn't like and I don't think any of us would be at all interested in seeing one.bjj hero said:
The only people I've met in real life that like westerns have been old men that don't like/can't understand anything made since I was born. There seems to be quite a lot of old men like this where I live.
