Musical Film Reviews Seven Bride

Musical Film Reviews

Seven Bride for Seven Brothers (1954)

In the 1950s, it was still considered legitimate fodder for American cinematic entertainment to be couched in the mythology of the nation's pioneer identity. The musical would commonly find its content in the backwoods identity of the macho frontiersman. It is to farcical extremes that this image is reflected upon in 1954's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. A film which plays heavily on the archetypes of America's homesteading era, it would seem as unlikely a subject for musical tangent as there is.

And quite certainly, half a century hence, the piece does date horribly. A best picture nominee in its time, its acting plays a distant second to the elaboration of its choreography. The dancing may well have been the aspect to most recommend this work, which ably fits into the somewhat hokey tradition of musical humor. This is to say that it will have perhaps translated immediately better to the stage, where its age might not seem so readily apparent.

That said, the production of its song and dance numbers really does shine, with the filmmakers taking opportunities in some of the most repetitive and mundane of activities to bring out the musicality. The seven lumberjack protagonists and their respective would-be mates provide a loud and frenetic narrative, with a screen naturally crowded by this device to ensure the optimal number of players in the event of a spontaneous dance number. However, from the perspective of sheer filmmaking, this was a frequently tiresome condition where action and dialogue were concerned.

All told, it is clear that the film was constructed with the intent to deliver its musical numbers and that most other aspects of its production were a relative second. While this does not make for a permanently successful film, it does render a telling musical document of its time and place.

Review: Chicago (2002)

The long-running and successful theatre piece Chicago was moved to the big screen in 2002 with a lavish and high-budget production that indulged in the work's color, flash and musical excess. This would widely be considered one of the most successful film adaptations of a stage musical to yet be released. Indeed, it would receive wide critical acclaim, winning the Best Picture Oscar that year and experiencing considerable profitability.

And from the perspective of a musical, the film would be extremely effective in simultaneously remaining on point and delivering an aural experience that is fun and properly fitted. The setting of the film, in Jazz Age Chicago, offers not just the opportunity to explore the burgeoning celebrity and metropolitan cultures of America, but also the opportunity to ground the show's songwriting into a certain milieu. The brassy vaudevillian sound of the era, the sultry and troublesome female vocal performance and the proclivity toward occasional pratfall all were readily appealed to in the script and production numbers. The opportunities available to the filmmakers in the historical context of the story would be effectively exploited in the musical.