The Magnificent Seven
Short description
A mining baron, Bartholomew Bogue, has taken control of the frontier town of Rose Creek, and the townspeople cannot stand against him on their own. Desperate, Emma Cullen and other residents turn to Sam Chisolm, a bounty hunter, who gathers a group of gunmen and outsiders to defend the town. Those recruits include a gambler, a former Confederate marksman, a tracker, a knife fighter, a fugitive and a Comanche warrior. As they train the townspeople for the showdown they know is coming, the seven men find they are fighting for more than the pay they were promised.
Antoine Fuqua directed the film, working from a screenplay by Richard Wenk and Nic Pizzolatto. It is the twelfth of the nineteen films he has directed, following Southpaw and preceding The Equalizer 2, and it reuses the title and central idea of a well-known earlier Western while telling its own story. Denzel Washington plays Chisolm, with Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lee Byung-hun and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo among the mercenaries; 56 cast members and 94 crew members are credited.
Made for a budget of roughly 90 million dollars, the film took about 162 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.9 out of 10 from around 245,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.5 out of 10 from a much smaller electorate, while the film critics' rating stands at 6 out of 10 from 315 reviews, so reviewers and audiences are closely aligned.
What's left behind the scenes
- Ethan Hawke and Vincent D'Onofrio played brothers in Richard Linklater's comedy-drama *Newton Boys* (1998).
- Wagner Moura was initially cast in the role of Vasquez, but had to be replaced as the actor was busy playing Pablo Escobar in the filming of the Netflix series *Narcos*.
- In Michael Crichton's original *Westworld*, Yul Brynner played a character based on the one he portrayed in *The Magnificent Seven* (John Sturges, 1960). Chris Pratt starred in *Jurassic World* (Colin Trevorrow, 2015), which was also based on a work by Michael Crichton and whose plot also unfolds in an amusement park.
- The role in the film was offered to Jason Momoa. The actor agreed, but later left the project due to filming on James Wan’s *Aquaman* (2018).
- One of the few Westerns in which the actors' nationalities match those of their characters. Martin Sensmeier is Tlingit by birth (an indigenous people living in southeastern Alaska and adjacent parts of Canada), and Manuel Rulfo was born in Guadalajara, Mexico.
- According to director Antoine Fuqua, Martin Sensmeier was cast because he arrived at the audition with a luxurious mane almost knee-length. Sensmeier was unaware of this and, to the director’s great disappointment, soon had it cut.
- Denzel Washington and Haley Bennett previously starred together in "The Equalizer" (2014), directed by Antoine Fuqua.
- Denzel Washington's first Western.
- Chris Pratt's first Western role.
- Landscaping specialists had to work on some locations in Baton Rouge, where filming took place, to make them look more like the Wild West.
- In the 1960s, Walter Mirisch was one of the most successful independent Hollywood producers. He, along with actor Yul Brynner, producer Lou Morheim, director John Sturges, and screenwriter Walter Newman, worked on an American remake of "Seven Samurai" (Akira Kurosawa, 1954). Mirisch still holds the film "The Magnificent Seven" (John Sturges, 1960) in very high regard.
- Chris Pratt and Vincent D'Onofrio played Owen and Hoskins in Colin Trevorrow's "Jurassic World" (2015).
- James Horner (1953-2015) composed the music for the film, having befriended director Antoine Fuqua during the filming of the drama *The Boxer* (2015). James wrote seven short compositions for the film. As Fuqua recounted, representatives of Horner came to the set in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a month after his death and brought with them the sheet music for the finished work. Horner liked the idea of the film so much that he wrote all the music for it before filming even began.
- The second film by Antoine Fuqua to be released in theaters, and which was given a PG-13 rating by the American Film Association (individuals under 13 are only admitted when accompanied by a parent).
- Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke previously starred together in "Training Day", which was also directed by Antoine Fuqua.
- A remake of the film "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), which is itself a remake of "Seven Samurai" (1954).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
