Let’s Talk About “The Magnificent Seven” Teaser Trailer

Whoa. I’ve never gone on record, or off record for that matter, as a fan of Westerns. I haven’t seen too many, and they don’t usually pull me in. I think my favorite may have been a video game (thanks Red Dead Redemption) but that just took a bunch of tropes and homages from all types of Westerns, Spaghetti or otherwise. This looks like a hell of a lot of fun though. It’s got a great cast, a competent director (Antoine Fuqua), and is based on a damn good couple of movies.

Remakes get a lot of ire, most of which is deserved, but every once in awhile we get something great. For every Psycho (1998) there’s The Thing (1982), every Rollerball (2002) has Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). This looks to lean much more into the category of the good over the bad. The remake here is of the original 1960 film of the same name, which in turn was a retelling of Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai.

With the town of Rose Creek under the deadly control of industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), the desperate townspeople employ protection from seven outlaws, bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns – Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio), Billy Rocks (Byung-Hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). As they prepare the town for the violent showdown that they know is coming, these seven mercenaries find themselves fighting for more than money. (official synopsis)

So let’s not waste anymore time and get right into it. Here’s the breakdown of the first teaser trailer of The Magnificent Seven.

  • A lone silhouetted figure is seen atop a horse in a field. If there is a more “Western” image, I’ll be surprised.
  • Haley Bennett‘s character tells Denzel Washington’s Sam Chisolm that she has a proposition. Her face looks pained, and a bit scared, so get your heads out of the gutter.
  • She goes on to say that they are decent people being driven from their homes as what looks like a gang of bandits are terrorizing a typical looking old west town.
  • Men are being punched in the stomach and churches burned. This is to show you that these are REALLY bad guys.
  • Peter Sarsgaard’s Bartholomew Bogue is shown gunning a man down, which leads his men to do the same.
  • We see him walking down the streets of the town with a lawman. His character is a wealthy industrialist, so it’s safe to say he’s got the law in his pocket.
  • Chisolm asks Bennett if she seeks revenge, she replies with “I seek righteousness.” as we see a shot of her mourning in a graveyard, then firing a rifle as she states “but I’ll take revenge.” Cool.
  • Everyone likes a gun twirling montage, so we get one here.
  • Chisolm sets out to pull together his mercs.
  • First stop, Chris Pratt’s Josh Farraday. A hard drinking, wisecracking, good looking guy that’s good at what he does. You know, Chris Pratt.
  • Then there’s a gold plated, crank powered minigun, shooting up the General Store, with Chisolm in it.
  • Farraday asks how many Chisolm’s got so far. He responds with “You and me.” Farraday smirks.
  • We get a montage of the other five members being recruited. Ethan Hawke’s Goodnight Robicheaux. (Which is a TOTAL badass name, and I’ll be naming my first child that… or at least my next pet). Vincent D’Onofrio’s beard playing Jack Horne. The, uh, others all doing cool cowboy things.
  • Chris Pratt winks and there’s a little bell that rings. This isn’t really important but I thought it should be noted.
  • One of Bogue’s men says this group is quite a bunch of strays, Robicheaux doesn’t think this will end well, Farraday isn’t sure.
  • A version of House of the Rising Sun plays.
  • The trailer really wants us to see how good a gunslinger Josh Farraday is. Going so far as to have him tell us. “God dang it, I’m good.”
  • Lots of explosions and gun pointing. I’m ok with this.
  • Followed up with cool horse tricks and knife wielding.
  • Bogue asks how many men? Seven man, it’s in the name of the movie.
  • The Seven are highlighted in a series of shots ending with one of them walking up Rose Creek’s main street. More classic Western iconography.
  • Close out on The Magnificent Seven title card.

All jokes aside this is a really cool looking and fun trailer. I’m actually pretty optimistic about this movie. As for now, count me in.

The Magnificent Seven opens everywhere September 23rd.

From Hollywood,

-Loren