This is a great movie about a backwoodsman named Adam who goes into town to find him a woman to cook and clean and pick up after him and six brothers. He scours the town, sizing up the women he finds, but most of them don't meet his approval. Either they're too weak, or too old, or already married, but he eventually comes across Millie, a woman who works at inn, and she's out back chopping wood. After taking a look at her apparent durability and tasting her cooking, he asks her to marry him... but nothing flowery here, he straight out asks her if she wants to come out with him to live on his farm. He then practically explains to her that he would have properly wooed her, if there had been enough time, but he just didn't have the time. Millie is kind of taken with Adam however and looks right past his rough frankness, thinking that he's quite taken with her. She's also not very happy with her life at the inn, having the feed and pick up after a small army everyday. When she's taken home however, she finds out that's exactly what she signed on for. She's upset at first, but she really takes the boys to her heart and starts preparing them to find girls of their own... and as they're all rough backwoodsmen who've never been in a lady's presence for longer than a second, she has to teach them some manners. The boy's make an impression on several girls in town, but things don't go as planned and they all end up back on the farm with only themselves for company. Now that they've discovered love though, they're all miserable, and Adam is worried he'll lose them all. He hatches a plot to kidnap their lovers, but when he carries it out and brings them unwillingly back home, Millie is so furious that she kicks the men out of the house for the winter (as the pass back to the village is of course snowed in). Adam is miffed at Millie's anger and decides to hide away in some forest cabin for the winter, leaving the boys to fetch and carry for the girls, without actually being able to interact with any of them. As spring comes around, the girls seem to have more than forgiven the boys, and Millie seems to be pregnant. Will the boys and girls be able to be together when the girl's fathers catch up with them? And will Adam ever value Millie as his brothers seem to value their ladies? Watch the find out!!!
I love this movie. The plot and the songs might sound a little but chauvinistic, and it is, but unlike many films of the time, this chauvinism is contested. In fact the way Adam acts toward Millie is almost satirically overplayed as we watch and listen to him size up women to be his wife/ maid, as we hear him convince his brothers that it is ok to kidnap the girls by telling them about the rape of the sabine women, etc. Don't get me wrong, this was a reality in the past. This exact situation actually happened with members of my own family... and they actually had six other siblings, though one was female. The way Seven Brides presents the 'man first' attitude is to have it noticeably present, and have Millie noticeably resist it. Also, the brothers are all sweetly infatuated with their sweethearts of choice, and At the end, Adam and Millie's situation also takes a turn toward the better nearing the end of the story. To top it all off, the songs are great, and it's a musical about freaking lumberjacks! How often do you come across that!? It's a combination of one of the most 'girly' interests- musicals, and one of the most masculine personalities- lumberjacks/ backwoodsmen. If you like musicals, love stories, pioneering times, comedies, barn yard brawls, or just good film, this is a definite must watch.
This is a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein about a young girl who falls in love with and marries a carousel barker.
The story opens up with a man, we'll assume he's an angel... he's dead that's for sure, and he's polishing some stars. Then the boss calls him into the office and they get to talking about his life, about whether or not he had any regrets or any unfinished business back on earth. He then begins to flashback to when he met his wife. The dead man's name was Billy Bigelow, and he made his living barking for carousels... that is standing in front of a carousel and bringing in customers, and on one night a pretty girl comes to the carousel, and he's quite taken with her. The owner of the carousel, an older woman with a bit of a thing for Billy, sees Billy's attraction and bans the girl, Julie, and her friend from the carousel. After Billy stands up for Julie, the carousel owner fires him, and Julie then chooses to leave her job (which fires female workers if they don't make curfew) to be with Billy, and the two of them get married. The story kind of goes downhill from here. Billy knows nothing else but barking and can't seem to find any work... and doesn't try very hard to get it either. The couple live off of Julie's cousin, and neither of them seem to be overly happy about their situation, Billy because he has nothing to do all day (not because he's a leech), and Julie because Billy is miserable... and sometimes takes it out on her. Billy starts becoming more and more elusive and angry as the days go by, to the point where he even beats Julie one night out of frustration. An old acquaintance seeks Billy out and tries to convince him to steal some money with him, but Billy isn't persuaded, until he learns that Julie is pregnant. Things don't go as planned, obviously, and Billy ends up dead. After telling his otherworldly warden this story, he is given the option to go back down to earth, and have the chance to help out the wife and baby daughter he left there. Will he go back, and if he does, will he be able to do anything to help the troubled family he left with nothing?!?!
This isn't my favourite Rodgers and Hammerstein, not by a long shot. Billy is a weak- willed, immature, good for nothing, lowlife who manages to catch the eye of pretty girl. He then proceeds to treat her poorly and leech off of her family members, rather than try to provide for her himself... and said after that he didn't mind it either. He's just an undesirable kind of man, cast in a romance and almost idealized... but watching this I couldn't feel that it was a love story. The guy didn't even want to see his own daughter because he thought she was in trouble... that's a good guy right there, someone who runs away from responsibility and challenges, even after death. And Julie was no better. She made more excuses for him than anything else, even after he beat her, which is only mentioned, we aren't shown that scene. I guess that was acceptable for the times, stand by your man and all... but grow a backbone.
Aside from that, movie wasn't wholly bad. Actually it was pretty good. The songs were pretty good and the storyline was alright if you're able to overlook the main characters' failings. The ending is also pretty sweet, and has a nice, 'don't let where you come from hold you back from where you're going' sentiment. Not a keeper, but worth a watch.
This is a pretty good remake of the Snow White story. The story starts off with a couple running in the woods. There's something chasing them down, and it hits the woman, who is pregnant. The woman then tells her husband to save the child rather than her and to keep running. Then we're brought forward to see a young girl, who is Snow White (named Lilli). The father decides to remarry and chooses for his wife a lovely woman named Claudia, of what we later find out comes from questionable origins. Claudia is seemingly normal and nice to Lilli, even years after the wedding. It's actually Lilli who is wildly resistant to this new woman, feeling as though she's replacing her mother. There are subtle hints of Claudia noticing Lilli's youth, but nothing is acted upon. Claudia eventually gets pregnant and is very happy about the child, but due to complications during the birth, she lost both the child and the ability to bear any future children, and it is then that she starts acting crazy. Claudia hints at some point that her mother was a witch, or social outcast of some sort, and after losing the child, she starts consulting this mirror that was given to her by her mother. She then begins to hear her reflection say things to her, and it eventually suggests that she get rid of Lilli. From this point on the story is pretty typical, but the dwarves aren't all small people, but in fact discontented peasants who actually want to kill her at first. And in this version she may or may not end up with the 'prince'.
I liked this version. It had all of the main elements of the traditional Snow White story, but with a bit of a twist. It still had that old-time feel and was set in the past, all of the main players were present, but some of the more minor details were changed just enough to give the story a fresh feel. Sigourney Weaver played the 'evil queen', and I thought she did a pretty good job. Actually, I bring up this movie just to say her name out loud, it's an interesting one. I don't know if this is a keeper, but if you like the Snow White story, you will probably find this interesting.
