So this is a film where a group of brothers that live up in the mountains come down to an innocent farm town and snatch up several women for their own, without asking for anyone's permission. They seal off the only entrance to their mountain home with an avalanche, meaning the town's people can't rescue these women until spring. By the time the town folk make it there months later, they not only find the women have developed Stockholm's syndrome and are content and happy living with their captors but that many of them might be pregnant.
But the worst part of all this? The guys who kidnapped these women are the heroes of the film. "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" makes out these men as being sick of isolation and just want a bit of loving, and they're looking for it the only way they know how - by forcing others against their wills and acting like cavemen when it comes to their possessions.
And it's all played for fun and laughter.
This makes "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" unbelievably uncomfortable. I understand that this was a different time when mountain men didn't have time to go out and look for wives, but something is wrong with your film when I am on the same side as the angry mob carrying shotguns and nets.
The only way "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" would work today is if it were a horror film and delved into the psyche of these kidnapped women. Otherwise, making a tale of holding people against their will and forcing love on them while trying to play it off as whimsical and light-hearted is unsettling.
Final Grade: C-
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