As a boomer, I tend to prefer old ones to new ones. For example, i think the musical films in 50s and 60s from Hollywood were great. I often watch those ones again and again. Of course, some of them are really good such as “Singing in the Rain.” But some are really shocking such as “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954).”
I don’t care musics or choreographs of the film no matter how good they are. I am shocked at the story of the film. For those of you who have not seen it yet, I’ll tell you this. Here, seven mountain men kidnapped seven young women in a villege downthere and took them to the brothers’ mountain cabins. Gee. I mean real “kidnapping.” How can you make a jolly musical film out of kidnapping? Of course the film tells the women eventually started to “love” the kidnappers.
Maybe it is because of the “Stockholm syndrome.” You know it means that hostages tend to develop a psychological alliance with their captors during captivity for many reasons.
I mean what can you do to survive if you are a hostage in a mountain cabin? For me, it is like trying to make a comedy musical film where the Jewish women at Auschwitz fall in love with German SS guards. Do you believe the women have the choice when guards are coming on to them? You’d better check your head if you think that’s a true love.
This film of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is about that horrible crime. You cannot and should not kidnap young women for your own desire including sexual one.
From time to time, there have been real cases where a lone mountain man kidnapped and sexually assaulted a young woman jogging or traveling alone in the U.S. I just do not know why this film has been accepted by audience in the U.S. without such legal concerns. Outrageous.
