Synopsis
A former sheriff relentlessly pursuing the 7 men who murdered his wife in Arizona crosses paths with a couple heading to California.
1956 Directed by Budd Boetticher
A former sheriff relentlessly pursuing the 7 men who murdered his wife in Arizona crosses paths with a couple heading to California.
Seven Men from Now, 7 hommes à abattre, Hombres sin destino, Der Siebente ist dran, 7 Homens Sem Destino, Sete Homens Sem Destino, Седем мъже от сега, Sept hommes restent à tuer, Syv mænd jages, 7 men from now, Seitsemän miestä jäljellä, Sju mäns död, Sju män kvan, 7 Hommes restent à tuer, I symmoria ton epta dolofonon, 7 Mard az Hala, I sette assassini, 七人の無頼漢, Los 7 renegados, De 7 bandieten van Silversprings, Syv menns skjebne, Siedmiu ludzi do zabicia, 7 Homens Para Matar, Şapte oameni de ucis, Sedmorica ubica, Семь человек с этого момента, Tras la pista de los asesinos, Yedi kişi ölecek, Los siete asesinos, Bilo ih je sedam, Sedm mužů na zabití, 七寇伏尸记, 7인의 무법자, Η συμμορία των επτά δολοφόνων, Syv Mænd Jages, שבעה גברים מעכשיו
There are actors who are unfuckwithable and then there’s Randolph Scott, who took unfuckwithable to new heights of unfuckwithableness.
70
Perhaps too skeletal, especially when compared to the laser precision of Ride Lonesome or The Tall T, but the ensemble cast is a miracle, with Lee Marvin tearing up the screen with a sly, mysterious performance. The central, pivotal moment is a huddled gathering in a covered wagon in the midst of a thunderstorm - beautiful in its style but more importantly an interior space where the ideas start to fester and complicate. Watching director Budd Boetticher find new routes and tensions within the classical western framework is part of what makes 7 Men from Now so distinctive.
Andre Bazin: 'An Exemplary Western'
('Un western exemplaire', Cahiers du Cinema 74, August-September 1957)
Here is a chance for me to apply what I have written about the politique des auteurs. My admiration for Seven Men from Now will not lead me to conclude that Budd Boetticher is the greatest director of Westerns although I do not rule out this hypothesis - but simply that his film is perhaps the best Western I have seen since the war. It is only the memory of The Naked Spur and The Searchers that makes me reticent. It is in fact difficult to discern with certain tv those qualities of this exceptional film which stem specifically from the "mise en scene, from the…
After the pre appointed final show down, most of it as precise as anything else on 50s action movie, Budd Boetticher wastes a second so Scott, who is on a bad leg, can go sit on a rock and take the previous 75 minutes of action. It is a remarkable movie because it finds time to that shot again and again. Also, because Lee Marvin has hardly ever been better.
I have two reviews to write about this. One is extremely horny, about Lee Marvin’s BDE, and the sexual tension between him and Randolph Scott. The other is more analytical, about Budd Boetticher‘s flawless pacing, the absolute genius of the wagon scene, and how much better Scott was for this role than any of the proposed alternatives. Both of my reviews converge, though, on that scene in the crowded wagon, during the storm, in which both of the men who aren’t Annie Greer’s husband see nothing but her; in which there are two layers of protection between her and Masters, with Stride the most intimate, and her husband further away; in which she knows from the very start that Masters is dangerous, because she’s a woman and can feel the threat to her that men around her blithely overlook.
Fuck this movie is good.
Normalise movies being sub-90 minutes again, I beg. One picture in and I can already tell Budd Boetticher is one of the more economical storytellers there is or was, and my tired, worn-out 2021 brain thanks him for his service. There’s an art to saying so much with so little, and Hell, I feel like I’ve just been through film school and back in the length of these 78 minutes. That, before you know it, feels like half.
Lee Marvin really tried to steal this man's girl right in front of his face and dared him to do something about it.
there's a sublime moment here where lee marvin, playing a decadent gunfighter, happens upon a sleeping man with a shotgun, perched on a chair, marvin begins loudly twirling around his guns in his hands, seeing what it'll take for the man to wake up. one, two, "BANG!" he shouts, pointing the pistol at the dozing man, who promptly awakes, pulls the trigger to fire, marvin kicks the chair out from under him in a lightning-quick edit, and the man falls, fires his shotgun uselessly into the ceiling while marvin has a wide grin, satisfied in his own frivolous cruelty.
these are the simple pleasures of westerns
The challenge is how to write about this film without using the word 'economical.' Too tough, this is only about 78 minutes long and each moment is gripping as we witness Randolph Scott's solemn quest to bring seven bank robbers to justice. Meanwhile, Lee Marvin, as is often the case, radiates a sense of danger that almost feels too raw, too feral for Fifties Hollywood. The framing of each shot tells a story of its own, with the frame of the wagon itself used to great effect, and the WarnerColor looks positively lush.
Reminded me somewhat of "Shane" in that we have a woman of the West who finds herself drawn away from her more timid husband towards a masculine…
Exploration of masculinity: it’s not the ability to protect the ones you love—you can never protect them from everything. Rather, it’s the ability to do what’s right even in the face of death
One of my main movie reference books is Joel Hirschhorn's Rating the Movie Stars. In that book he rated each movie star by each of their movies....on a 1 to 4 range. Randolph Scott made 97 movies in his career....according to Hirschhorn's book it took Scott 88 movies before he got his first 4 star rating for a movie performance. That performance was in Seven Men From Now.
This was the first of 7 Randolph Scott and Budd Boetticher(director) movies. Those movies were referred to as the "Ranown Cycle". In this one Scott plays a former sheriff who is after 7 bank robbers who killed his wife as they stole $20,000 in gold. Lee Marvin plays a gunslinger who is…