[Destor]

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) - 7/10

Ah the American Musical. The only red white and blue art form. This film coming in at the peak of its tenure as the giant of the american film industry just 2 years after Singing in the Rain. I was all in when the films I want song was "bless your beautiful hide." Hilariously brilliant pun the establishes everything you need to know. The goals of the protagonist. Who the protagonist is and just how backward he is. Juxtaposing him against the town.The world the characters will be set in. Everything you need an i want song to do it does and its a toe tapper to boot.

Fundamentally this is two fairy tales kinda mashed together. Its beauty and the beast and the 7 dwarves. Snow white tries to train the drawves to be men essentially.

Not all the songs hit that well, honestly probably only 2 or 3, but where this really nails it is the dance numbers. Choreography is nearly peerless. There's a huge number at the top of the 2nd split in 2 parts. 1st is the dance before a barn raising and the 2nd half is the barn raising itself. In the 1st half the 6 brothers are trying to be men to captivate the civilized women as civilizedmen. and it works. In the 2nd half the civilized men challenge the brothers on the primal level and they've diluted their instincts. The civilized men begin to take advantage of them until they revert to their natural selves but they lose the women in the process.

Now this is incredibly smart stuff. In courting you need to be soft enough attract a female and hard enough to drive away the competing men. If you veer to far in either direction you risk failing the endeavor. And they do this during an outstanding dance number full of gymnastics, tumbling, pratfalls, swing dance and just outright fun.

Another number i really enjoyed was afte the brother return home alone and defeated they have this bit showing their depression where theyre chopping wood in the snow. The song is pretty lovely but what i really appreciated is how they used the work they were doing to be the percussion for the number. It added a really interesting visual layer to the bit and i really enjoyed it.

The films conclusion is pretty outrageous. The men misinterpret a book and conclude kidnapping is the key to getting a wife. So they do. Its all played for laughs and it is pretty funny to be fair. The girls do fall for them ultimately andand when the towns folk come to get back their daughters the girls try to hide from them. They dont want to go home. The brothers try and force them to go home to avoid bloodshed and the girls resist. This creates a scene where everyone is doing the right thing but from the towns folk perspective it looks like the brothers are forcing themselves on the women.

And again its pretty damn funny.

This all resolves with the women declaring their love and the fathers forcing the men to make honest women out of them after its implied theyve spent all winter fucking them (even though they didnt.)

And while it probably shouldnt be its pretty fucking funny.