The new trailer for The Magnificent Seven (2016) has me cautiously optimistic that the movie will do justice to the very good original film from 1961. That movie starred Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, and Charles Bronson. The new film also features a great cast, with Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ethan Hawke, and Haley Bennett. From the trailer though, it looks like the movie is largely a Washington and Pratt show.
Antoine Fuqua, who previously directed Training Day (2001) and King Arthur (2004), directs the new film. From the trailer, it seems he at least roughly follows the story of the 1961 film, which was directed by John Sturges. That film, in turn was based on the great Japanese film, Seven Samurai (1954), which was directed by Akira Kurosawa.
The trailer shows a widow (Bennett) seeking help to get vengeance for her husband’s death. As in the original The Magnificent Seven, the new trailer indicates one thing leads to another, so that the rag-tag band of seven has to stand up against an army to protect a town. Check out the trailer below.
The Magnificent Seven heads into theaters on September 23, 2016.
What do you think of the trailer? Leave your two cents in the comments?
The arrest and conviction of former boxer Ruben “Hurricane” Carter inspired one of Bob Dylan’s great protest songs and an award-winning performance by Denzel Washington.
Ruben “Hurricane” Carter, who had been suffering from prostate cancer, passed away on April 20, 2014 at the age of 76. Carter, who was born on May 6, 1937 in New Jersey, was a former boxer who was accused of murder in 1966.
Carter spent 19 years in prison in New Jersey before a court reversed his conviction in 1985 and set him free. His story inspired a great Bob Dylan song and a movie starring Denzel Washington. While both the song and the movie took some liberties with Carter’s story, they both captured truths about the criminal justice system.
Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane”
Carter’s case became a rallying cry for the Civil Rights Movement. Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy wrote a song about the wrongful conviction. And then Dylan released “Hurricane” as a single in November 1975.
Dylan played what many fans consider his last great protest song during almost every performance of the 1975 Rolling Thunder tour. “Hurricane” went on to become a top 40 hit, despite its length and level of detail in telling a story.
Denzel Washington’s Hurricane
Ruben Carter’s life appeared in a major film too. In 1999, Denzel Washington portrayed Carter in the movie Hurricane, which was directed by Norman Jewison.
Washington gave a wonderful performance as Carter, winning a Golden Globe and earning a nomination for the Best Actor Academy Award. In this scene near the end of the film, Denzel Washington as Carter makes a final plea to the court.
The Real Story
The movie and the song took some dramatic license with the facts of Carter’s life. For example, many noted that Dylan’s song overstated Carter’s ranking in the boxing world (“He could-a been/ The champion of the world”).
Ultimately, the federal judge who reversed Carter’s conviction noted the unjust role of race in the case. And, like all folk songs, the message of Dylan’s song became important on its own. Although the singer tells a story about one man, the song told the truth about wider problems in the criminal justice system.
The new trailer for The Magnificent Seven (2016) has me cautiously optimistic that the movie will do justice to the very good original film from 1961. That movie starred Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, and Charles Bronson. The new film also features a great cast, with Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ethan Hawke, and Haley Bennett. From the trailer though, it looks like the movie is largely a Washington and Pratt show.
, and later in a 2011 autobiography, 
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