Few other movies have inspired filmmakers the world over the way Kurosawa’s Seven Samuari and Coppola’s The Godfather did, to come up with their own versions and continue to do so even today.Kurosawa’s timeless classic found its perfect setting in the wild west of John Sturges’s Magnificent Seven and the source material was duly credited in the titles too.
Indian film industry also had its versions, Sholay notably, though Feroz Khan had his curry western Khotey Sikkey out an year ahead where he even wore a black shirt throughout, playing the Indian Yul Brynner.The plot was revisited by Rajkumar Santoshi later in China Gate with a bunch of veteran “character actors”, as they are labelled in our cinema.It’s when you watch these versions that you realise that they are all remakes of The Magnificent Seven and have little in common with Seven Samurai, the original except for the plot.
Denzel Washington dons the black shirt in Antoine Fuqua’s version of the Seven and he even spins and holster the gun exactly the way Brynner did too, if you care to notice.The western, as a genre lost its charm a while back and it’s been over two decades since even Clint Eastwood, the quintessential American cowboy hung up his boots and moved on.Fuqua relies on the action element heavily to keep the movie afloat and he borrows more than one dialogue from the original too.
Chris Pratt is supposed to fill the shoes of Steve McQueen in this movie, one gets a feeling and when Fuqua is looking for his seven, Ethan Hawke would be an obvious choice for sure.Vincent D’Onofrio plays a hairier version of his Daredevil role here.For the sake the diversity there’s a Korean actor, none other than Byung-hun Lee playing a “Chinaman” and giving him company is an Indian warrior and a Mexican outlaw.Finding replacement for the likes of Bronson and Coburn is not an easy task, one would agree.Peter Skarsgard’s crazed violence is hardly a match for Eli Wallach’s Calvera.But It’s not everyday that you get to see Denzel drawing a quick one atop a galloping horse which was reason enough for me to go watch The Magnificent Seven, i admit.
gopakumarpurushothaman 