The Magnificent Seven remake... (2 Viewers)

[bujaki]

A certain cigar wasn't homoerotic to a certain Bill whose last name won't be mentioned (in order to abide by the rules).

 

[disctrip]

Except if they watch the old film after watching the new one they will say "That's boring and slow!" because the editing back then was not such that it seemed to be trying to induce an epileptic seizure.

That's the major problem with today's generation. No attention spans. If they don't get any "action" every 7 min. then the film is boring. What a pathetic bunch.

 

[Robert Crawford]

That's the major problem with today's generation. No attention spans. If they don't get any "action" every 7 min. then the film is boring. What a pathetic bunch.

That's what my parents said about my generation, 40 years ago.

 

[JoHud]

I'm more surprised that they're actually making a western. Sure, one of the safest properties possible in terms of banking off of nostalgia, but even that is somewhat impressive these days.


And it can't be any worse than The Lone Ranger, right? I'm still recovering from that disappointment...

My daughter and her friends went to see THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN at a free screening in Bryant Park in Manhattan, without any prompting from me. I was proud of her...until she started going on about the film's "homoerotic" content. I tried to explain "male camaraderie" to her, a concept apparently unknown to her feminist role models, whoever they may be.

These days, there's a larger tendency to consider any male bonding to be a sign of homosexuality. You know, like trying too hard to put a modern take on an older movie.


Like two guys hugging = OMG TEH GEYZ!!


Not saying it isn't sometimes a "more than friends" relationship beneath the lines, but The Seven Samurai and Magnificent Seven aren't really those kinds of stories. Reluctant vagabonds who band together and form a bond greater than their own selves and thus are able to overcome fearsome odds against bandits...is it really necessary to read more than that?


Especially considering how much those two are thoroughly dissected by critics and film scholars over the decades, I think we'd know it there was such an intent by now.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I'm more surprised that they're actually making a western. Sure, one of the safest properties possible in terms of banking off of nostalgia, but even that is somewhat impressive these days.

Well for those of us that saw and enjoyed the original I'm not sure we'll be very nostalgic about seeing Chris Pratt and Denzel Washington taking over for Yul and Steve. I mean we watch the original for nostalgia so this new version will mostly be aimed at people that don't know there already was a film called The Magnificent Seven. Does anybody that enjoyed the first film think this new version will actually be better? Still I'm with you in that I am happy somebody is making a western and I hope it does well.

And it can't be any worse than The Lone Ranger, right? I'm still recovering from that disappointment...

I think it could be worse but I was ok with The Lone Ranger and enjoyed it for what it was. Plus with The Lone Ranger I did not really have something from another time that really stood up as being anything great. The TV shows were nothing special, to me, and there was not another "great Lone Ranger" movie to compare it to.

These days, there's a larger tendency to consider any male bonding to be a sign of homosexuality. You know, like trying too hard to put a modern take on an older movie.


Like two guys hugging = OMG TEH GEYZ!!

Well, is the "Bromance" officially a genre now? I think it is funny when people try to force the idea that all the cowboy films from the past are homosexual romps because I'm sure that's exactly what Sam Peckinpah and John Ford intended.

 

[Rick Thompson]

Reading all this reminds me of what Robert Frost said about the end of his poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." The last lines are:


The woods are lovely dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

Miles to go before I sleep.


Frost was asked what those lines meant. Now remember, critics have analyzed this poem in all sorts of ways, among them that the woods represent an urge to return to the womb. Some interpretations are even wilder.


So here is what Frost said:


"I meant that I thought it was late and I should be moving on."

 

[TravisR]

Well for those of us that saw and enjoyed the original I'm not sure we'll be very nostalgic about seeing Chris Pratt and Denzel Washington taking over for Yul and Steve.

But how much of a remake do you think this will be? I'd be surprised if they didn't take the premise of 7 guys helping a village and do their own thing from there. In other words, I doubt they'll have a scene with Pratt and Washington driving a hearse to Boot Hill or many other specific scenes from the 1960 version.

 

[Ejanss]

Not saying it isn't sometimes a "more than friends" relationship beneath the lines, but The Seven Samurai and Magnificent Seven aren't really those kinds of stories. Reluctant vagabonds who band together and form a bond greater than their own selves and thus are able to overcome fearsome odds against bandits...is it really necessary to read more than that?ow.

Kurosawa wanted to make the point about the last days of the dying samurai culture, and the original '60 M7 did a good job of creating the dying gunfighter culture, especially in Brynner's "...None" speech.

The characters in both movies had a professional camaraderie in knowing that their jobs cut them off from common humanity, and all they had to socialize with was each other, even though they knew they'd either eventually end up killing each other off someday, or just end up out of work.


You'll never KNOW that kind of bonding unless you're in a job where everyone hates you. Like, being a Star Wars fan, for example.

I think it could be worse but I was ok with The Lone Ranger and enjoyed it for what it was. Plus with The Lone Ranger I did not really have something from another time that really stood up as being anything great. The TV shows were nothing special, to me, and there was not another "great Lone Ranger" movie to compare it to.

(Well, there was--Not a "great" one, mind, but at least one that looked like it was supposed to, and not directed by a raving lunatic trying to turn it into one of his previous mumbo-jumbo pirate movies...)

I'm imagining Denzel playing Brynner's role while Pratt does McQueen.

At first, I thought, "Is this some mutation of Wesley Snipes wanting to play Brynner's Gunfighter from the Westworld remake?", but then I noticed it was Antoine Fuqua directing, who pretty much just wanted to recreate the Denzel-and-white-kid dynamic from Training Day.


That pretty much explains it all.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

But how much of a remake do you think this will be? I'd be surprised if they didn't take the premise of 7 guys helping a village and do their own thing from there. In other words, I doubt they'll have a scene with Pratt and Washington driving a hearse to Boot Hill or many other specific scenes from the 1960 version.

I don't know really. I thought they might just take the concept and drop it into a modern urban setting and have 7 guys defending a neighborhood from drug dealing thugs or the ubiquitous Russian mobsters when I first heard about this. I would think they would recreate set pieces like the ride to Boot Hill in some way but putting a different spin on it. Sequences to introduce each of the 7 and all that. The 3:10 to Yuma remake was pretty faithful to the Glen Ford version. I would have been much more excited to see them doing a different story than a remake of another old western but I guess they much prefer some kind of known commodity.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

(Well, there was--Not a "great" one, mind, but at least one that looked like it was supposed to, and not directed by a raving lunatic trying to turn it into one of his previous mumbo-jumbo pirate movies...)

I did not think he was trying to turn it into one of his pirate movies. To me I thought he was just paying tribute to all kinds of films from the past. He seemed to cover everything from silent films, Harold Lloyd,Keaton, and Chaplin, to John Ford and the Spaghetti west. Personally, I think he really did a great job making a big over the top tribute to movie history...but people tend toward the simplistic and empty view of the film...he just set Pirates in the West...which is actually quite inaccurate.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I don't know really. I thought they might just take the concept and drop it into a modern urban setting and have 7 guys defending a neighborhood from drug dealing thugs or the ubiquitous Russian mobsters when I first heard about this. I would think they would recreate set pieces like the ride to Boot Hill in some way but putting a different spin on it. Sequences to introduce each of the 7 and all that. The 3:10 to Yuma remake was pretty faithful to the Glen Ford version. I would have been much more excited to see them doing a different story than a remake of another old western but I guess they much prefer some kind of known commodity.

Not in my opinion as there were some major differences.

 

[Vic Pardo]

I did not think he was trying to turn it into one of his pirate movies. To me I thought he was just paying tribute to all kinds of films from the past. He seemed to cover everything from silent films, Harold Lloyd,Keaton, and Chaplin, to John Ford and the Spaghetti west. Personally, I think he really did a great job making a big over the top tribute to movie history...but people tend toward the simplistic and empty view of the film...he just set Pirates in the West...which is actually quite inaccurate.

I got lost somewhere. Neither you nor Ejanss identified the film you're discussing.

 

[Ejanss]

I got lost somewhere. Neither you nor Ejanss identified the film you're discussing.

(We moved the deprogramming of Reggie W.'s determination to defend the '13 Lone Ranger as "misunderstood genius" over to the '81 Lone Ranger Blu-ray thread.

I don't know how it ended up here either, but apparently, those who get a taste of "Westerns are too OLD to remake!" just never let it go...)

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Well, I never said misunderstood genius but I do think it is a very entertaining film. I also never said westerns are too old to remake just that the concept of The Lone Ranger was a relic mainly because it is the most simplistic white hat/black hat version of the genre and it is not a character that has remained in the public consciousness over the years. It pretty much died in the 1950s and people were not even interested back in 1981. So, you are bending things a bit toward the breaking point, Ejanss.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I got lost somewhere. Neither you nor Ejanss identified the film you're discussing.

Post 25 in this thread.


"I think it could be worse but I was ok with The Lone Ranger and enjoyed it for what it was. Plus with The Lone Ranger I did not really have something from another time that really stood up as being anything great. The TV shows were nothing special, to me, and there was not another "great Lone Ranger" movie to compare it to."

That was a response to JoHud. Ejanss picked it up from there.

 

[Tony J Case]

Although really this is a remake of a remake.

Remake of a remade remake - don't forget this awesomeness from the 70's:





Also - I have no idea if this is any good, but based on the one episode I saw this anime was pretty strong:





Mind you, it's a pretty loose interpenetration, since I'm pretty sure that Seven Samurai didn't have giant robots. But you know, whatever.


* * * EDIT * * *

As a counterpoint, the Lone Ranger was fucking awful. Putting aside all the baggage that comes with the name, it was a terrible flick in its own right. There was no need for the damn thing to be 2.5 hours long, I'm sick of Depp showing up and doing his "Wacky Outsider With A Silly Hat" schtick (and really, haven't we moved past casting white guys in non-white rolls? Really?), the lead was bland as milktoast and it was relentlessly dull. That last action scene when the William Tell theme finally came blasting out? Was pretty goddamned awesome - but it came way too late in the movie for me to care anymore.


And this is before you add in the baggage of a 70-ish yeah old property. I'm having trouble deciding which one was more disrespectful to the original character: this or the Man of Steel. This wasn't a Lone Ranger movie, this was the Wacky Adventures of Tonto and his sidekick.


It wasn't a fun Bad Movie. It was just a bad Bad Movie.

 

[Ejanss]

Remake of a remade remake - don't forget this awesomeness from the 70's:

And that one was at least aware of its M7 roots enough to cast Robert Vaughn as his Magnificent Seven character, in space.

John Sayles B-movies are cool.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

" Robert Vaughn as his Magnificent Seven character, in space."


Robert has a "What the hell am I doing here?" look on his face as he steers his spaceship through the cheese. Which is pretty funny.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

* * * EDIT * * *

As a counterpoint, the Lone Ranger was fucking awful. Putting aside all the baggage that comes with the name, it was a terrible flick in its own right. There was no need for the damn thing to be 2.5 hours long, I'm sick of Depp showing up and doing his "Wacky Outsider With A Silly Hat" schtick (and really, haven't we moved past casting white guys in non-white rolls? Really?), the lead was bland as milktoast and it was relentlessly dull. That last action scene when the William Tell theme finally came blasting out? Was pretty goddamned awesome - but it came way too late in the movie for me to care anymore.


And this is before you add in the baggage of a 70-ish yeah old property. I'm having trouble deciding which one was more disrespectful to the original character: this or the Man of Steel. This wasn't a Lone Ranger movie, this was the Wacky Adventures of Tonto and his sidekick.


It wasn't a fun Bad Movie. It was just a bad Bad Movie.

I'm pretty aware that I am going to be fairly alone in saying that I found Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger entertaining...but I'm ok with that. The film uses Tonto as the way into the story and elevates him to being on equal ground and maybe a little ahead of the Lone Ranger on things but I enjoyed that aspect of the story and I thought it worked. I never found The Lone Ranger to be an interesting character and making Tonto interesting added a great deal to this story in my opinion.

 

[Ejanss]

I'm pretty aware that I am going to be fairly alone in saying that I found Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger entertaining...but I'm ok with that. The film uses Tonto as the way into the story and elevates him to being on equal ground and maybe a little ahead of the Lone Ranger on things but I enjoyed that aspect of the story and I thought it worked. I never found The Lone Ranger to be an interesting character and making Tonto interesting added a great deal to this story in my opinion.

On radio, the Lone Ranger's producers wanted to spin off a "contemporary" character, and came up with the idea that John Reid's modern-day great-great-(etc.) grand-nephew Britt Reid was working in San Francisco as a millionaire newspaper editor, but, with the aid of his faithful Asian chauffeur and sidekick, fought crime as an anonymous masked hero for justice--

Now, if we want to get into a discussion of how the Green Hornet was ultimately treated on film because someone thought the 60's series was "too outdated" (Kato was the smart one, Britt was goofy!), THERE'S another whole kettle o' topic.