The new remake of Magnificent Seven should be lefty culture critic’s wet dream. The film has a multi-racial cast, a black director, and air of effortlessness when it comes to diversity.
But unfortunately culture critics can never be pleased until they have sucked all the joy out of the universe, as per their sick robotic function. Apparently, Magnificent Seven is not racist enough for them, and its post-racial attitudes in a 19th century setting are very problematic.
The director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Southpaw) has made statements that suggest he did not want to make a political movie, just a fun spectacle.
“When I was in a room with MGM and Sony and the producers, we just talked about actors, and I just wanted to see Denzel Washington on a horse,” Fuqua said at a press conference. “I didn’t think about color or anything; I just thought that would be an event.”
This kind of attitude of trying to make a cool movie without browbeating audiences with political messaging, rubbed some culture critics the wrong way.
Noah Berlatsky of Quartz was very disappointed that Magnificent Seven added diversity the “wrong way” (according to Berlatsky, a white male).
His chief problem with the movie was that no one was trying to kill Denzel Washington (the lead) on sight due to his race: “A black law enforcement officer in the 1800s would have represented an insupportable affront to racial hierarchy. White racist men would have been coming out of the woodwork to try to kill Chisolm.”
Also a former confederate soldier had super problematic interracial friendships: “Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke) is a former Confederate soldier with, improbably, no trace of racial prejudice—and the film lines up people of color to testify to his purity of soul.”
And a Native American was allied with white people: “Why it’s a disgrace for a Native American to fight for the land rights of this white genocidal settler rather than the land rights of that white genocidal settler is unclear.”
Buzzfeed’s Alison Willmore was also sad to see no period-accurate gratuitous use of the n-word and called the film’s diversity “just for show.”
“The race of the stern Chisolm, played by the filmmaker’s repeat leading man Denzel Washington, goes uncommented on, even as he strides into all-white spaces and starts giving orders to men who are happy to take them, showing no trace of bigoted resentment.”
What these white culture critics don’t understand is that the film’s director — who is, again, black — didn’t want to make their kind of movie. Fuqua wanted to make a fun action movie, not a dour tale of a multi-ethnic band of heroes getting beaten down by vitriolic prejudice. But apparently Fuqua’s vision of diversity was “wrong” and “just for show” according to a bunch of white keyboard warriors on the internet.