{"id":9042,"date":"2016-10-14T17:07:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idsunmedia.com\/?p=9042"},"modified":"2016-10-14T17:07:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T17:07:00","slug":"the-magnificent-seven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/14\/the-magnificent-seven\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Magnificent Seven\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Seven is the charm<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">By Jonathan Kane<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7524\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7524\" style=\"width: 169px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7524 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/idsunmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/JonKane-169x300.jpg\" alt=\"Jonathan Kane is a graduate of the University of Michigan. \" width=\"169\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7524\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jonathon Kane is the producer and director of nexStage Theatre\u2019s Play Reading Series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p2\">A\u00a0good, rousing Western is always welcome at the cineplex, mostly because of its rarity these days. Hollywood has reached back to one of its best \u2013 John Sturges\u2019 1960 \u201cThe Magnificent Seven\u201d \u2013 with a remake starring the formidable Denzel Washington.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Of course, that film was a remake of Akira Kurosawa\u2019s 1954 epic classic, \u201cThe Seven Samurai.\u201d That movie, set in feudal Japan, remains an iconic Western with some of the most poetic action scenes ever put on film. Kurosawa wanted to pay homage to the master, John Ford, and he did it with plenty to spare.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">What can you say about this new version? It\u2019s good entertainment, but hardly reaches the classic status of its two predecessors. One problem: In the first two, the mercenaries are working off of some classic code of honor that makes them want to defend the villagers. Here, the motive is revenge, which weakens the plot a little. Also, changing the threat from marauding groups of bandits to an evil, scheming miner (Peter Sarsgaard) seems a lesser choice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">But the choice of Washington as the leader couldn\u2019t be better. Approached by a widow, Haley Bennett, to see if he could rid the town of Sarsgaard\u2019s evil control, Washington then enlists the help of six supremely armed strangers to assist him \u2013 most notably Chris Pratt as a roguish gunslinger and Ethan Hawke as a Confederate sharpshooter battling inner demons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The seven\u2019s mission is to prepare the town for retribution for killing a handful of Sarsgaard\u2019s goons. When the confrontation comes, it\u2019s a really big one \u2013 perhaps the longest shootout ever put on film.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Handled nicely by director Antoine Fuqua (\u201cTraining Day\u201d), action seekers will not be disappointed. Neither will fans of Washington, who once again delivers a powerful performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seven is the charm By Jonathan Kane A\u00a0good, rousing Western is always welcome at the cineplex, mostly because of its rarity these days. Hollywood has reached back to one of its best \u2013 John Sturges\u2019 1960 \u201cThe Magnificent Seven\u201d \u2013 with a remake starring the formidable Denzel Washington. Of course, that film was a remake [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}