Movie 7 Brides For 7 Brothers

[Marsilius Boa]

SevenBrides for Seven Brothers is a 1954 American musical film, directed by Stanley Donen, with music by Gene de Paul, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and choreography by Michael Kidd. The screenplay, by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, and Dorothy Kingsley, is based on the short story "The Sobbin' Women", by Stephen Vincent Bent, which was based in turn on the ancient Roman legend of the Rape of the Sabine Women. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which is set in Oregon in 1850, is particularly known for Kidd's unusual choreography, which makes dance numbers out of such mundane frontier pursuits as chopping wood and raising a barn. Film critic Stephanie Zacharek has called the barn-raising sequence in Seven Brides "one of the most rousing dance numbers ever put on screen."[4] The film was photographed in Ansco Color in the CinemaScope format.[5]

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers won the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and was nominated for four additional awards, including Best Picture. In 2006, American Film Institute named Seven Brides for Seven Brothers as one of the best American musical films ever made. In 2004, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

The next morning, Milly uses her cleverness, skills, and persuasion to begin teaching the Pontipee brothers cleanliness and proper manners. She is later surprised to learn that despite their handsomeness, Adam's brothers have remained unmarried because they rarely see women and never learned how to interact with them. Despite initial difficulties in changing their "mountain man" ways, they realize they can find someone to marry if they follow Milly's example. They then sing ("Goin' Co'tin'"). At a barn-raising social gathering, the brothers meet the townswomen Dorcas, Ruth, Martha, Liza, Sarah, and Alice, all of whom take a fancy to one of the brothers despite the women already having suitors, resulting in another song ("Barn Dance"). The suitors taunt and sneakily attack the Pontipees during the barn raising. The brothers resist the urge to fight at Milly's previous request even after the suitors hit the brothers with the barn-raising tools and boards, but one suitor then attacks Adam, provoking Gideon to retaliate. A brawl ensues in which the physically superior Pontipees overpower the suitors, but the Pontipees anger the townspeople by ruining the barn raising and beating down their men. This cuts down their chances of being with the women they care for.

As winter comes and the brothers pine for the women they fell in love with they sing ("Lonesome Polecat"), and Milly asks Adam to help them. He reads his brothers "The Sobbin' Women" and Milly's Bible, telling them they should do whatever it takes to get their loves.

With Adam's aid, the brothers kidnap the six women before causing an avalanche in Echo Pass to stop the pursuing townspeople. However, the Pontipees realize they forgot to kidnap a parson to conduct their weddings, and they will be snowed in at their homestead until spring. Furious at the Pontipees' actions, Milly forces the men to live in the barn while the women stay in the house with her, sleeping in the brothers' beds. In response, a similarly furious Adam leaves for the Pontipees' trapping cabin further up the mountain to spend the winter alone. Gideon tells Milly, but she refuses to stop Adam from leaving.

Alice's father, Reverend Elcott, hears Hannah crying as the townspeople sneak up onto the farm. Assuming the baby belongs to one of the six townswomen, he asks them whose child Hannah is. After they all answer "mine", the fathers begrudgingly agree to give the six brothers and the six women a collective shotgun wedding.

Dorothy Kingsley was brought on to the film to replace Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett who she says "didn't get along with Stanley Donen. They were lovely people, darling . . . but the script just wasn't coming out right, they were unhappy, and he was unhappy. They wanted to bow out. Stanley Donen called me in and I looked at the script and said, "The big trouble in the original short story is that the Howard Keel character is the one that tries to get all of these boys married off, and that's not right. The girl has nothing to do, and she's got to be the one to engineer all this stuff." That was changed around and seemed to please everyone, and we went from there."[15]

Lyricist Johnny Mercer said that the musical numbers were written at Kidd's behest, as an example "of how a songwriter sometimes has to take his cue from his collaborators."[17] For example, Kidd explained to Mercer and dePaul his conception of the "Lonesome Polecat" number, the lament of the brothers for the women, and the two worked out the music and lyrics.[17]

In his introduction to a showing on Turner Classic Movies on January 17, 2009, host Robert Osborne, as well as Jane Powell in her autobiography, The Girl Next Door, both say MGM was much less interested in Seven Brides than it was in Brigadoon which was also filming at the time, even cutting its budget and transferring the money to the Lerner and Loewe vehicle.[12]

Most of the movie was shot on the MGM sound stages. One exterior sequence not filmed at the studio was shot on location at Corral Creek Canyon in Sun Valley, Idaho. It was here that the escape following the brothers' kidnapping their future brides and the avalanche that closed the pass was filmed.[18]

On the 2004 DVD commentary, Stanley Donen states that the film was originally shot in two versions, one in CinemaScope and another in normal ratio, because MGM was concerned that not all theaters had the capability to screen it. Despite the fact that it cost more than the widescreen version to make, he says, the other version was never used. However, both versions are available on the 1999 LaserDisc and 2004 DVD releases.

Contemporary reviews from critics were positive. When it premiered at the Radio City Music Hall, A. H. Weiler of The New York Times called the film "a wholly engaging, bouncy, tuneful and panchromatic package ... Although the powers at M-G-M are deviating from the normal song-and-dance extravaganza in 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,' it is a gamble that is paying rich rewards."[21]

Variety wrote: "This is a happy, hand-clapping, foot-stomping, country type of musical with all the slickness of a Broadway show. It offers songs, dances and romancing in such a delightful package that word-of-mouth could talk it into solid business at the boxoffice."[22] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post declared: "Dandy dancing, singable songs and the ozone of originality make 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' the niftiest musical I've seen in months."[23] Harrison's Reports called it "A thoroughly delightful blend of songs, dances and romantic comedy" with "exceptionally good musical numbers."[24] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the dances "give the picture its remarkably spirited and exhilarating quality ... A minor weakness is the playing of Jane Powell, whose Milly is a somewhat colourless figure; Howard Keel, the brides and the brothers, however, are all admirable."[25]

John McCarten of The New Yorker posted a dissenting negative review, writing that the film "got on my nerves" and "struck me as desperately contrived and often witless", though he did concede that there were "some fine dances" in it.[26]

The film came in third in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the UK's "Number One Essential Musicals"[28] and was listed as number eight in the "Top 10 MGM musicals" in the book Top 10 of Film by Russell Ash. In 2004, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." In 2006, it was ranked #21 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals. In 2008, the film was ranked number 464 in Empire's list of the 500 greatest films of all time.[29]

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes awards Seven Brides for Seven Brothers an 88% "Fresh" rating based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The critics' consensus states: "Buoyed by crowd-pleasing tunes and charming performances, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers makes a successful transition from Broadway to screen that's sure to please the whole family", despite the fact that the movie was originally produced for film and debuted on Broadway over two decades later.[30]

I just got engaged on April 3rd and now we are working on asking the members of our bridal party to be in the wedding. I have an etiquette question.... should the bride's brother be a groomsman? My FH already has his close friends picked out and he is not very close with my brother- and neither am i! Everyone I ask seems to have a different opinion (some saying yes because he's my brother and others saying its up to the groom).

My brother is not a groomsmen, but I do have my FSIL in my bridal party. There are no real rules about having the bride's bothers/sisters or groom's brothers/sisters in the wedding. If he has others who he is closer with and would rather have standing up with him - he should have who he wants.

My FH is having one of my brothers as a groomsmen but not the other. I'm closer to that brother and don't really speak to the other. I don't think that he has to ask him. Especially if neither of you are close to him. I didn't ask FH's sister to be a BM because neither of us are close to her. I wouldn't feel obligated.

It's totally up to the groom. There is no obligation to include future siblings-in-law in the wedding party, although many do. But since neither of you are close to your brother, it's certainly not necessary.

There are no rules that say that siblings have to be in the wedding party. Each person getting married should pick the people they want to stand up with them. If you're not close with your brother, then there's no reason to ask him to stand up with you.

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