Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Year: 1954
Rating: Approved
Length: 102 minutes / 1.70 hours
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) is one of those musicals during the golden age of musicals that I was aware of but had only seen bits and pieces of. I found a DVD of it a while back and finally got around to watching it. As far as musicals go, it’s colorful and has a few good songs that are sung well by the cast. Unfortunately, the content is dated and is almost cringeworthy by today’s standards.
I will give some leniency that this film represents an era that was not entirely enlightened when it came to women. The Wild West was about survival as much as it was about the loneliness that came with it. While I’m sure there were more men than women out in these regions, it doesn’t excuse how these seven brothers went about obtaining their wives. That they’d even consider the plight of the Sabine women (which they pronounce “Sobbin'”) as an appropriate plan to get wives speaks volumes about the media literacy of these characters.
At first, I thought Seven Brides for Seven Brothers would be more about bringing the feminine touch to this rowdy group of guys. Even if Adam (Howard Keel) wooed Milly (Jane Powell) correctly—albeit incredibly fast—forcing her to get the rest of the brothers into marriageable shape felt sexist. And while I enjoyed the amazing choreography in scenes like the barn-raising (and the resulting brawl), I just can’t get past the fact that this movie condones kidnapping women like that. Perhaps if the brothers had presented themselves as better alternatives to the townsfolk as potential suitors, then they wouldn’t have had to resort to this tactic. As it stands, the Stockholm Syndrome solution doesn’t sit right today.
Great musical trappings on an otherwise troublesome plot, I give Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 3.0 stars out of 5.
