I love a good Western! Some of my favorites include, “The Good The Bad and the Ugly”, “The Outlaw Josie Wales”, “Silverado”, “Open Range” and the new “The Magnificent Seven” is a worthy successor to its 1960 namesake.

The original Magnificent Seven is more your dad’s favorite film than a cinematic blockbuster, which was also a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 Japanese film “Seven Samurai”. Denzel Washington does a great job in leading a cast of acting talent with a heroic and watchable performance. If you’re looking for classic Western action, the movie does not disappoint in giving the audience spectacular gunfight scenes faithful to this genre of movie. Also notable, were the inventive set pieces accompanied by astonishing scenery and backdrops. I have not seen a Western this good in awhile.

Spoiler Alert

Bartholomew Bough (Peter Sarsgaard) is a ruthless gold miner who holds the small town of Rose Creek hostage under a tyrannical regime of cruelty and hard labor. After a particularly gut-wrenching killing spree from Bough and his goons, newly widowed Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) goes off to seek justice and revenge by hiring “duly sworn warrant officer” Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington) to find her a band of men who will fight to win back the freedom of Rose Creek. Along the way they pick up a diverse band of misfit band of brothers which includes the nimble-fingered gambler Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt), aging sharpshooter Goodnight Robicheux (Ethan Hawke) and his sidekick-assassin-storm-shadow of the west Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), wanted outlaw Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), hunter and human grizzly bear Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Indian warrior Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier) .

The film is an epic, fun and feel-good Western in many ways. The action is fully present, the characters don’t get bogged down with too much of the backstory, and the rugged Wild West backdrop and period attire are what’s expected from a good Western.

It’s important to unpack the backdrop and synopsis of the movie, but here are 3 reasons why this modern remake of “The Magnificent Seven” made the cut for me.

Christian Themes

The movie will have an overt appeal to faith-based audiences because of some surprisingly Christian elements; including the iconic church building, a reliance on prayer from the townspeople and among the heroes themselves.

The church which becomes a central focus and metaphor in the story before and after its destruction is a very clear to pick out. Other Christian themes include; discussions of God and spirituality in simple terms, a local preacher providing wisdom in several scenes, people questioning the wisdom of vengeance and what the path to righteousness looks like. And a big one is people wrestling with the weight of death and sacrifice, particularly laying down one’s life for someone smaller or weaker.

Not all the “good guys” are angelic heroes. Some of the recruits join the team for self-serving reasons, and a few were murderous outlaws. However, the more these men work with the Godly heroes, the more they consider their own lives that they are about to risk for a righteous cause.

There are several poignant scenes that take place in the church, such as when the seven men are encouraged to get right with God before going to battle. Yes, there a few references to revenge, but the epic battle at the end is a necessary means to protect the innocent town from the evil looking to take it down. If you struggle with that perspective, let the words of Edmund Burke haunt you, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Building a Team

I enjoyed watching how the team came together from disparate backgrounds to rally around a worthy cause to defend the defenseless. An evil man must be stopped, and seven guys ban together and form an unexpectedly unstoppable team by combining their unique skill sets.

Before the inevitable showdown with Bogue himself, the seven have a number of obstacles to overcome as many teams typically do. First, these very different men with very diverse backgrounds have to learn to get along and trust each other before running into battle as a band of brothers. Then, they have to work to get past the mistrust and fear of the locals – who are far from unified about how to deal with the storm that’s about to descend upon them. There’s also the issue defending a town that will require more than seven men, so the hired guns set out to train the townsfolk to fight – or, at least, try to. When the villain of the story Bogue hears about all this, he counters with a small army of his own, which requires resourcefulness and one heck of a strategy on the part of the defenders of Rose Creek.

I enjoyed this movie because it was an awesome Western, but I also enjoyed it because of the timeless theme of warriors defending the weak with its moments of strength. You can figure out the simplicity of the plot by watching the trailer, but what you can’t see from the trailer is the character development and discussions about how all the warriors feel about what they’re doing. These important segments are well placed within all the action scenes.

Realistic Approach To Battle

I appreciated the film’s realistic approach to battle. This isn’t one of those films where all the good guys survive because the bad guys can’t shoot straight, like in Star Wars…the good guys as well as bad guys die here.

Of course, we would like to think that a peaceful resolution could be the outcome of such dire circumstances, but sometimes force is necessary to take down evil. This awkward band of brothers does just that by not only putting their own lives on the line but helping bring justice to the townspeople by making a last stand. Towards the end, Washington’s Chisholm retreats to the candle-filled church for an intensive quiet moment of prayer, making it unmistakable that the movie’s heroes are believers.

In summary…I haven’t seen a good Western for a long time and really enjoyed this film. It delivered and lived up to the rip-roaring, rollicking fun I expected, but was also more thought-provoking than I expected. Yeah, there was some objectionable content here and there but that was overshadowed by the amount of Christian faith sprinkled throughout the film. Of course I liked the original Magnificent Seven, but in my opinion, this new modern reboot of “The Magnificent Seven” – is a magnificent movie!

Have you seen the remake of “The Magnificent Seven”? What were your thoughts?