As I
said in my review, it was the diversity in the trailers for the new Magnificent Seven that caught my eye; I
thought it was awesome that four of the seven were played by people of
color. However, I was also
apprehensive. It was obvious that Denzel
Washington’s Chisholm was the lead, but I worried about the other three
characters of color. With the three
white guys being played by the likes of Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, and Vincent
D’Onofrio, the disparity in U.S. recognition with Byung-hun Lee, Manuel
Garcia-Rulfo, and Martin Sensmeier was stark.
Not that there’s anything wrong with being a relative newcomer (like Sensmeier,)
more known for his work in his native country (like Lee,) or a little of both
(like Garcia-Rulfo.) None of that is in
itself a problem, but I was worried that this seven-person ensemble might turn
out to be “Denzel, Chris, Ethan, Vincent… and the rest.” I wasn’t all that interested in a diverse
film in which most of the characters of color were noticeably less important
than the white ones. On that front, the
best verdict I can put on the film is “it’s complicated.” I’m not gonna go for the full The Good, The
Bad, and the Ugly here (even though, as a Western, it’d be appropriate,)
because there really isn’t anything I’d call ugly, but it’s definitely a mixed
bag (spoilers.)
We’ll
start with Denzel’s Chisholm. Once
again, clear lead, so that’s good. He’s
the one who brings the seven together and keeps everyone going when things get
rough. He’s cool, collected, and
principled, a formidable warrant officer who knows how to get the job
done. He’s also very savvy in terms of
navigating the world he inhabits – his ability to speak Comanche is a major
asset, and when he enters a town he knows probably won’t welcome him, he comes
prepared with proof of his business for legally being there – and is certainly
the glue holding the operation together.
If I have a complaint, it’s that he might be a little too “good” and
noble. While the final act of the film gets
into his more personal reasons for agreeing to go after Bogue, Chisholm’s
obvious white-hat status feels a bit too clear-cut for modern audiences.
This
doesn’t make him a bad character, but it does mean he has less going on in
terms of development than Chris Pratt’s Faraday and Ethan Hawke’s Robicheaux, both
of whom seem to get the lion’s share of the film’s characterization. Faraday is a clever gambler on a journey to
discover what sort of man he really wants to be – ie, does he have it in him to
risk his life for others because it’s the right thing to do, rather than simply
because they’re paying him? It’s a
pretty well-trod arc, but it’s an arc none the less. Meanwhile, Robicheaux is a Civil War vet with
PTSD who’s good at talking a big game while he struggles privately to keep his
demons at bay. He has an arc as well,
working to overcome his trauma in order to stand and fight with the
others. And while Vincent D’Onofrio’s
Jack isn’t as important as Chisholm, Faraday, or Robicheaux, he’s given a clear
character to work with in terms of being a kooky recluse with a strong
religious bent, more than mild paranoia, and a penchant for sudden acts of
violence.
So
then, what about our non-Denzel PoC characters?
In terms of importance to the story, I’d put them on the same tertiary
rung as Jack – with Chisholm at the top and Faraday and Robicheaux slightly
below him – but without the same distinctiveness as him. Don’t get me wrong. They’re not all interchangeable brown people
or anything, nothing of the sort, but in terms of the script, there’s
definitely less effort put into those three.
Here’s what I know about each one, apart from their race and their
(individiually awesome) fighting abilities.
Byung-hun Lee’s Billy: taciturn,
loyal to Robicheaux, former outlaw.
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo’s Vasquez:
charming rogue, outlaw, grandfather fought at the Alamo. Martin Sensmeier’s Red Harvest: taciturn, told by his tribe’s elders that
he’s “on a different path,” doesn’t like “white man’s food.” And really, that’s all. None of them has any sort of arc beyond simply
joining the seven, and none of them goes through any significant change over
the course of the film. I’d also say
that Denzel, Pratt, and Hawke each has far more lines than these three
combined, and while the same probably can’t be said for D’Onofrio, I bet he has
more than each of them individually.
But
while the story doesn’t show a whole lot of interest in them as characters,
they as characters do make important
contributions within the story. Each is
a licensed badass in his own way, and each gets ample chance to shine in the
action scenes. Billy comes off
especially well – I could watch him throw knives with those beautifully-fluid
movements of his all day – but I also love the bit of Vasquez shooting a bad
guy straight into a coffin, and Red Harvest’s fight with Bogue’s Comanche
assassin is great. Additionally, even
though they don’t have a lot to work with, Lee, Garcia-Rulfo, and Seismeier all
do bang-up jobs as their characters. By
movie’s end, I may not have known as much about them as the rest of the seven,
but I definitely wanted more of them and was just as invested in them as the
other four, and much of that is down to the strength of the acting.
On a
final note, I do think that the film handles language with these three
characters just right. I like that Billy
speaks perfectly-fluent English, Vasquez speaks mostly-fluent English with bits
of Spanish thrown in, and Red Harvest mostly speaks Comanche but does know some
English (I also like that Chisholm is the other character who knows some Comanche.) Nice variety, and the approach to each
character’s language feels appropriate.
