Analysis of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 1954 - Movie Review Example

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 1954 2007 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, released on July 22nd 1954, is a musical film directed by Stanley Donen, famous for a number of other films, including Signing in the Rain (1952). The film was shot at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced by Jack Cummings and got its fame for the unusual choreography by Michael Kidd. With Saul Chaplin and Gene de Paul as music directors and lyrics composed by Johnny Mercer the film contains eight memorable songs that were sung by the rich baritone of Howard Keel and beautiful soprano of Jane Powell. The screenplay created by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, and Dorothy Kingsley is based on Stephen Vincent Benét’s short story “The Sobbin Women”, based in its turn on the Ancient Roman legend of The Rape of the Sabine Women. This 1954 Oscar nominee for Best Picture became real classics of the US cinematography. Plot: Though John J. Puccio (2004) considers the plot “slight” and the characters underdeveloped, most of critics do not agree with him. So one of them believes that the plot “has a hook that will interest anyone”, while it retells of The Rape of the Sabine Women “in a rough West painfully short on marriageable women, with lovesick men too unschooled to realize that kidnapping sweethearts is not the way to win a mate” (Erickson 2004). The events take place on an Oregon ranch high in the mountains. The farm belongs to the family of the Pontipees, consisting of seven brothers, named after Biblical characters: Adam, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank for Frankincense, and Gideon. Singing "Bless Your Beautiful Hide" to his future wife "whoever she may be”, Adam, the eldest of the brothers, sets off to the nearby town in order to find a wife, while the fellows need a woman for cooking, cleaning and doing the rest of female work. He meets Milly (played by Jane Powell), who works as a waitress, proposes to her, stating that courting is a waist of time, and she, having fallen in love at first sight and full of romantic sentiments, accepts his proposal. Adam does not inform the bride of his six brothers, for whom Milly should cook and clean. Reverend Elcot (Ian Wolfe), Milly’s surrogate father, though reluctantly, marries them. When at the ranch Milly learns the truth, she feels hurt and horrified by the brothers, who are real unwashed slobs. Yet, as Pete Croatto (2004) remarks, “Milly doesn’t look for an annulment or a good divorce lawyer. She rolls up her sleeves, seeks solace in her Bible and gets to work”. She informs the brothers that they should learn good manners. "What do I need manners for?" asks Adam, "I already got me a wife." As Almar Haflidason (2001) puts it, “In a series of enjoyable scenes, Millie whips her adopted family into shape, and soon has the fearsome brothers reduced to what Keel can only describe as "Mammas boys!" The brothers love and respect Milly for her values and they start thinking of finding their own wives. Milly teaches the fellows how to court and dance, which turns out to be not too hard to do. Then she chooses barn-raising for introducing them into the society. Certainly, the brothers meet the girls to their liking. Though they forget the manners they’ve been taught, which is clear from "Goin Cotin", going courting, song, performed by Powell, the town girls take much notice of them, which annoys the girls’ suitors. The jealous fellows try to engage the brothers into fighting and, as a result, the townsfolk drive the brothers out of town. The hot-tempered Pontipees are missing their girls, moping around for them. Adam reads a story about Sobbin’ Women, and advises them to kidnap the brides. The brothers do it, causing an avalanche so that townspeople cannot follow them. The girls and Milly are furious. She sends the brothers to live in the barn, staying in the house with the girls. Adam leaves for the family’s hunting cabin to stay there for the winter. Day by day the girls fall in love with the brothers. In spring Milly gives birth to a daughter. Adam returns home. Being a father now, he realizes how the girls’ families must be worried about their children and wants to send the girls home, but neither they nor Adam’s brothers agree to it. When townspeople arrive to take the girls back, they hear a baby’s cry. The parents are worried that it is a baby of one of the girls’, and the girls all at once claim the baby as their own. So the townspeople insist that the girls should marry the brothers immediately in a shotgun wedding (Classic Film Guide 2007, Yahoo 2007, Wikipedia 2007). There are two important features about the film. Fist, it has almost no references to sexual relationships. Secondly, it deals with the role of woman. So Milly wants to be treated and perceived as a partner, having her own opinions and values, and not as “a servant without wages”. The girls are furious for not being asked their content for the abduction (Yahoo 2007). “For those who find the movie to be short sighted in its treatment of women (even though the musical takes place pre-Ms.), Milly is the most assured, independent and complete character on screen. She’s the antithesis of most female leads in today’s romantic comedies” (Croatto 2004). Actors: As it was mentioned at the beginning, Adam is played by Howard Keel, a handsome baritone who starred in a number of musical classics, such as Showboat, Kiss Me Kate and Annie Get Your Gun and Jane Powell also starred in musicals, the most famous being Royal Wedding by Stanley Donen (Yahoo 2007). Pete Croatto (2004) highly appreciates Powell’s acting: “Aside from her singing, Powell also delivers a great performance as Milly, making her alternately feisty, compassionate, and motherly. With the presence of singing and dancing farmers, Powell provides the movie with a much-needed human center. And here’s the best part”. The six other brothers are played by Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn, Tommy Rall, Marc Platt, Matt Maddox, and Jacques dAmboise. Five of them were professional dancers. Russ Tamblyn acted in Tom Thumb and West Side Story. Jacques D’Amboise, playing Ephraim, was a ballet superstar, “whose work with kids was later featured in the Academy Award winning documentary He Makes Me Feel Like Dancing” (Yahoo 2007). Their six brides are played by Julie Newmeyer (later Julie Newmar), Nancy Kilgas, Betty Carr, Virginia Gibson, Ruta Kilmonis (later Ruta Lee), and Norma Doggett, most of whom also were dancers. As Puccio (2004) says, “Some of them were chosen for their acting ability, some for their singing ability, some for their dancing or acrobatic ability, and all of them for their attractive appearance”. Choreography: The critics agree about wonderful, “spirited” and “innovative” choreography by Kidd. “This movie includes some of the most thrillingly energetic dances ever put on film, including the classic barn-raising number”, expresses his admiration the author of the Yahoo’s review article (2007). “Michael Kidds choreography uses extended takes and timed routines to excellent effect, and pulls off an acrobatic tour-de-force for the celebrated barn raising number. As many as ten dancers at a time risk their necks tumbling and cavorting atop raised planks, platforms, etc. The choreography is both exhilarating and funny, what with everything we see being a dance and an acrobatic stunt at the same time”, writes Glenn Erickson (2004). Almar Haflidason (2001) praises the choreography of the film for its being “seamlessly woven into the fabric of the plot, which creates a more natural movie.” Music: There are eight songs in the film, including "Bless Yore Beautiful Hide," "Wonderful Wonderful Day," "When Youre in Love," "Goin Cotin", "Lonesome Polecat," "Sobbin Women", "June Bride," "Spring, Spring, Spring," and various reprises of the tunes, along with several purely orchestral interludes. John Puccio does not like most of them, finding them “too routine and unmemorable” (Puccio 2004). Yet, his views are not shared by the rest of critics. So Glenn Erickson (2004) comments on the film’s music favorably: “The songs in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers are consistently witty, motivated and in the service of an interesting story, something few musicals can claim. The cast breaks out in a ballad of one kind or another every few minutes, yet even musico-phobes enjoy this one.” Production and Rewards: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was being shot simultaneously with Brigadoon, “a production led by three of the four members of the highly successful ‘Freed unit,’ which comprised Vincente Minelli, Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen and of course Arthur Freed, and was being touted as MGM’s next big hit” (Northcott 2007). Thus the budget of the Brides was only about one third of the Brigadoon’s budget, being cut almost in half with the money going for the production of the “big hit”. Yet it was Donen’s film that became the 9th highest-grossing film of that year, won five Oscar nomination (in comparison with Brigadoon’s three) and the Academy Award for Best Picture, Screenplay, George Folseys Color Cinematography, and Ralph Winterss Editing, as well as for Best Musical Score, was added to the National Film Registry in 2004 and ranked #21 on the American Film Institutes list of best musicals in 2006 (Classic Film Guide 2007). The miniscule budget made Donen shot the outdoor scenes in the pavilions, so the backgrounds are paintings and the movie was obviously filmed on a stage (Northcott 2007). Whereas not all the theaters were equipped to display widescreen cinematograph, the film was shot in two aspect ratios, 2.55:1 and 1.77:1. Both of them are presented in the DVDs released in 2004. Though the widescreen version is often complained of being duller in color and faded, it is better for watching most of dancing scenes (Puccio 2004). References: Classic Film Guide (2007). Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Review. Classicfilmguide.com Retrieved September 29, 2007 from http://www.classicfilmguide.com/index.php?s=essential&item=104 Croatto, Pete (2004). Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Review. Filmcritic.com. Retrieved September 29, 2007 from www.filmcritic.com/.../84dbbfa4d710144986256c290016f76e/6e1cdb94b2bdfad688256eec005ae508?OpenDocument= - 21k Erickson, Glenn (2004). Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Warner DVD, DVD Savant Reviews. Retrieved September 29, 2007 from http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1399brid.html Haflidason, Almar (2001). Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. BBC, Film reviews. 23 April 2001 Retrieved September 29, 2007 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/04/23/seven_brides_seven_brothers_1954_review.shtml Northcott, Cheryl (2007). Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Review. Apollo Communications Ltd. Retrieved September 29, 2007 from http://www.apolloguide.com/mov_fullrev.asp?CID=2283 Puccio, John (2004). Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Review. DVD Town Com. October 8, 2004. Retrieved September 29, 2007 from http://www.dvdtown.com/reviews/seven-brides-for-seven-brothers/2400/1 Wikipeadia, the free Encyclopedia (2007). Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. September 18, 2007, Retrieved September 29, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Brides_for_Seven_Brothers_%28film%29 Yahoo! (2007). Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 1954. Retrieved September 29, 2007 from movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800115963/parentsguide - 32k Read More