Goodnight Robicheaux
Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke) was a sharpshooter in the Confederate army—a guy so cool at the trigger that he truly was called the Angel of Death. But so much killing robbed Robicheaux of his cool. He’s terrified of dying and plagued with visions of his own demise. And the night before the climactic battle, he rides away, turning the Magnificent Seven into just the So-So Six.
But Robicheaux returns, warning his mates of a grave danger. He takes up a post—up in the church’s steeple—even though he knows full well he’ll probably never make it out alive.
Robicheaux, a bad man and cruel killer for most of his time on earth, decided to use his skills for something better: He stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his brothers in arms. And together—Robicheaux, Chisolm, Jack Horne and the rest—they all risked their lives for the lives of others. Or as we are told in the coda, “They fought for the souls who couldn’t fight for themselves, and died for them, too.”
“Greater love has no one than this,” we read in John 15:13, “that he lay down his life for his friends.” Even though The Magnificent Seven has some dubious theology connected with it—sometimes intentionally, sometimes not—this last comes across well and true. And it gives this problematic movie a satisfying ending.
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