Seven Men From Now

The era of the Western, once the quintessential American genre, can be divided largely into two sections. First, there was the era of John Ford who, along with his drawling muse John Wayne, created simple, stark morality tales where the line between hero and villain was rarely obfuscated. From 1939 until 1956--when his finest and most morally ambiguous film, The Searchers, was released--he was the unquestioned king of the western and, by extension, of Hollywood itself, winning 4 Oscars and countless acclaim. By 1964, coincidentally the year Ford directed his last film of note, the genre had been adopted by the Italian director Sergio Leone, who spear-headed the advent of the spaghetti western. The world of the spaghetti western was more equivocal than that of Ford...  heroes (most famously the stoic Clint Eastwood) of uncertain character and motivation populated Leone's complex plots.

Gamely bridging the gap between these two titans was the iconoclast Budd Boetticher. A former bull-fighter turned studio director, Boetticher is most famously known for the seven low budget westerns he produced between 1956 and 1960. All starring the aged famed movie star Randolph Scott, these films are unique for their deceptively simple presentation which belies the subtly complex characters, and the varied interactions between them.

Perhaps the most famous of these is his 1956 film Seven Men From Now, which is both the first and most ambitious of these films. The movie opens with our hero, Scott's Ben Stride, emerging ominously out of the rain. He enters the camp of two men, obviously apprehensive at his presence. Who these two men are, and why Stride has come are initially a mystery; but after revealing that he's arrived from Silver Springs in pursuit of seven men responsible for a robbery and murder comitted in that town, he guns them down in an exchange of bullets that's as brief as it is brutal.

The next day, as Stride tracks his next victims through the wilderness, he happens upon a wagon stuck in the mud. The drivers are the mousy if well-meaning John Greer and his unreasonably attractive wife Annie... the young couple is fresh from Kansas City, but hope to eke out a new life in the woolly frontier. Stride is immediately taken by Annie and, after helping them out of their predicament, agrees to accompany them along the road for further protection. The attraction between Stride and Annie is immediate and obvious, yet goes unnoticed by John whose inability to protect his wife's honor becomes a running theme as the plot progresses.

Eventually, they run into two former nemeses from Stride's past: the eloquently forboding Bill Masters (a young Lee Marvin) and his mostly silent partner Clete. Masters playfully alludes to Stride's past, which to this point has remained a mystery to his fresh-faced companions, and the verbal sparring they engage in foreshadows at the violent final encounter between them which seems inevitable.  Masters and Clete forcefully join the merry band, with Masters having designs on stealing the riches from Stride after he exacts his vengeance on the seven murderers. Stride has a uniquely personal reason for hunting these men down; a reason Masters gleefully reveals to the young couple, and by proxy to the audience.

However, the tale of revenge itself is secondary to the characters and the verbal sparring and interaction that takes place between them. As Masters travels with this uneasy group, he takes an undue interest in Annie, while also making light of the fact that her husband John isn't enough of a man to confront him for his untoward behavior. When Ben Stride steps up to defend her honor, it merely underscores the fact that John was either unwilling or unable to do so, which further undermines his manhood.

Indeed, Lee Marvin is a revelation as the oddly likeable villain. It's obvious how much fun he's having in the part as he schemes and plots and plays each side against one another (later in the film he agrees to help the men Stride pursues, only to betray them in stunning fashion). One gets the sense that he comes from interesting story to toy with Stride and to pursue a modest fortune. The slyest and most compelling scene belongs to him; he effectively undresses Annie with his words by recalling a relationship he had with a women whose looks "were nothing like yours, Mrs. Greer." His tone implies the exact opposite.

Randolph Scott portrays Ben Stride with ease, a seasoned veteran fast approaching the end of his career. His eyes are effusive and expressive, which recall the tragedies of his past but also underline his determination to do what he can to put things right. A classy hero, he managed to be equal parts sinister and upstanding while managing to avoid the cheap theatrics of John Wayne's iconic speech patterns (ironically enough, Wayne's Batjac studios produced this feature).

The budding romance between Stride and Annie is developed with similar subtlety in a series of scene where much is left unsaid (though so much is expressed by the longing in Randolph Scott's clear, blue expressive eyes). The audience, as well as the characters themselves, are also acutely aware of the chemistry when they sleep at night, Annie sleeping in the wagon, while Stride sleeps directly under her... only the wooden floor of the wagon barring them from one another.

There's something comforting about a great Western. Despite the differences in the characters, the story or in the tone, one can always expect to see the same tropes examined and played with again and again. Individuals dwarfed by the sprawling, untamed landscape must fight to survive in the harsh, unsettled west and as such, the problems and connections between them are magnified and laid bare underneath the uncompromising western sun. Despite the low-budgets of Boetticher's pictures, he made full use bare desert landscapes and stripped his films to the bare essentials, realizing that no amount of money could compare to a multitude of well-realized characterizations.

Much credit for these must go to Boetticher's favored screen-writer Burt Kennedy who wrote the scripts for three other Boetticher-Scott collaborations. The dialogue crackles with wit, while also retaining the characters' authenticity. Unfortunately, Boetticher's career was cut far too short by studios who  labeled him a madman and so his steady and assured ability has gone largely unacknowledged when compared to the grand legacies that Ford, Leone and also Eastwood have left behind. However, from the talent evident in Seven Men, it's clear that, given the proper opportunity, he might have constructed a filmography that put them all to shame.

Gleenneen16's rating: ****/*****

How Green Was My Valley

Howdy readers, sorry for that week of silence (what have you done without me I wonder?). But now that Finals are finally almost over, I can finally focus on blogging more regularly... expect more updates in the coming days. Here's a review I wrote for my friends over at IMDB:

Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still, real in memory as they were in flesh.

It’s unfortunate that if John Ford’s only Best Picture winning film (can that be right?) is remembered for anything nowadays, it’s for topping a film classically acknowledged as being among the best of the 20^th century, Citizen Kane. From a modern perspective it might seem hard to understand how an occasionally mawkish tale of a proud Welsh family won the trophy. Nonetheless, to my mind, this melodrama about a Welsh mining town, and how the Industrial Revolution transforms this town and its people, is a classic in its own right, more than worthy of the lofty status inherent in being a best picture winner.

Gwillym and Beth Morgan teach their youngest to be dignified in the face of adversity.

At the center of this story is the youngest son of the proud Morgan family, Huw Morgan, who is finally leaving the valley after 50 years. The landscape, once pristine and barely touched by soot, has been obliterated. The few miners that remain no longer sing jauntily, like his father and brothers used to. As Huw leaves, he remembers happier and more prosperous times, when simple people like his family could flourish. This film is told from his perspective, seen through the eyes of a young Roddy McDowell (too young at times, though several years pass he never looks a day over 10). The valley of his childhood is idyllic, as memories of one’s childhood are wont to be. Huw’s narration provides the film’s most powerful moments: the quotes on his father which bookend his reminiscence, the unrequited, unreturned love he feels for his brother’s fiancée.

The memories of a child were the perfect way to tell this story, the nostalgia inherent in those memories helps make the labor struggles of a small Welsh town seem universal. This is a film about a family, tested through the passing of time and how they must acquiesce to the changes time forces upon them. When their wages are first cut at the mine, a mere sign of the problems to come, the patriarch, Gwilym, is reluctant to accept his sons's calls to unionize. In his mind, he has dealt honorably with his employers and so they shall do the same to him. But these simple values are slowly eroded by the obvious truth that he and his family are being exploited.

The idyllic memories of childhood.

Despite the many tragedies that befall them, the many disappointments and unfulfilled hopes and dreams of the Morgans, John Ford's simple and honest style always allows them to keep their decorum. However, a large share of the credit must also go to the actors. Donald Crisp and Sara Allgood, as the mother and father of the Morgan Family are both outstanding. The dignified love they have for each other, as well as their reserved strength are the highlight of the film. Walter Pidgeon as the idealist preacher, confronted with the inadequacy of his faith in the face of a corrupted township has perhaps the best-acted moment in the movie, when he indicts the mining town for their false piety. Maureen O’Hara, as the beautiful Morgan sister whose love he rejects, also has some great moments.

What makes this film a classic is its superb cast and how ably it plays upon the universal themes of memory and love, family and loss. With the coming and going of time, things inevitably change… sometimes time and time again for the worst. It is in how we deal with those changes that our value is measured. How Green Was My Valley is a tale made ubiquitous by the family at its core, who through their dignity in the face of hardship, prove to be invaluable.


Gleenneen16's rating: ****1/2/*****