Whether or not you care a hoot about westerns or western scenery, whether or not you like Gregory Peck or Jean Simmons, whether or not you like movies with action - this is a powerful moving experience.
The movie has so many Shakespearean tones - the father-son relationship, the rival families, the mismatched romantic couple - it will remind you of so many of his plays. It was also said to be Wyler's comment on the Cold War - and probably also reflects the feelings of a director who grew up in Alsace-Lorraine and felt from birth the enmity between the French and Germans before World War I.
One of the things I most enjoyed was the way in which the viewer had some sympathies with every single one of the seven main characters.
The least sympathetic is probably the Chuck Connors role -- yet even with him, one feels right from the start his dynamism, his love of life, his all-too-human pleasure in things. He's not a simple bully - in some respects he could easily fit in with the trio of Gunga Din who burst from windows, enjoy women to the fullest if they aren't tied down, play tricks, and live life to the fullest. The director makes us FEEL the joy of Connors and his brothers in showing off, in their daring, their vivacity when we see them on horseback early in the movie.
The most sympathetic are Peck and Simmons - and wow, what a combination. They were born to play opposite each other - and it's terribly sad that this is their only pairing.
Charles Bickford, Burl Ives, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, we feel with each one. For example, Baker is given a wonderful scene in which she pleads that she will do whatever it takes to get Peck back, apologizes for her behavior, insists it will never happen again. She is shallow, too young for Peck, concerned enormously with appearances - yet Wyler shows us a warm creature easily capable of love and affection.
We feel with Heston - who has grown up loving a woman who has put him in his place and who has now tied herself to a stranger - who will presumably in time became his boss even though Heston was raised as practically a stepson to Bickford. We see Heston subtly change over the course of the film - to an independence of Bickford that is wonderfully done.
The astonishing courage of Bickford's character, his stamina, his truly rugged independence, his native refinement, and his outrage at the coarseness of the Hennessys, is so well-drawn.
Ives' character is brilliantly drawn too - a great sense of fair play, an admiration for gentlemen - which he is decidedly not and knows - a feeling that he has never gotten much of what he wanted, his disappointment in his son - these are fascinating to see.
This is really a great movie - with great characters who themselves cause the plot to go the only way it could.
My only objection is the too neat ending - but Simmons and Peck just looking at each other is SO right.
Don't miss this. It is both powerful and subtle - it is never rushed and devotes time to the development of all the seven characters which I find quite rate in movies generally.
Thus, we see Simmons and Baker together alone - and Baker's comment, "You always think you know everything" to Simmons gives us a pretty strong idea of their characters' relation before the movie ever began.
We see Heston alone with Baker - his barely suppressed desire breaking out - and her feeling that he is beneath her.
We see wonderful scenes of Bickford and Heston alone together - and the great scene where we realize that the men hold with Heston far more than with their nominal boss when they refuse to go where Heston won't go.
This is monumental - fascinating - very American - and wonderful.
The movie has so many Shakespearean tones - the father-son relationship, the rival families, the mismatched romantic couple - it will remind you of so many of his plays. It was also said to be Wyler's comment on the Cold War - and probably also reflects the feelings of a director who grew up in Alsace-Lorraine and felt from birth the enmity between the French and Germans before World War I.
One of the things I most enjoyed was the way in which the viewer had some sympathies with every single one of the seven main characters.
The least sympathetic is probably the Chuck Connors role -- yet even with him, one feels right from the start his dynamism, his love of life, his all-too-human pleasure in things. He's not a simple bully - in some respects he could easily fit in with the trio of Gunga Din who burst from windows, enjoy women to the fullest if they aren't tied down, play tricks, and live life to the fullest. The director makes us FEEL the joy of Connors and his brothers in showing off, in their daring, their vivacity when we see them on horseback early in the movie.
The most sympathetic are Peck and Simmons - and wow, what a combination. They were born to play opposite each other - and it's terribly sad that this is their only pairing.
Charles Bickford, Burl Ives, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, we feel with each one. For example, Baker is given a wonderful scene in which she pleads that she will do whatever it takes to get Peck back, apologizes for her behavior, insists it will never happen again. She is shallow, too young for Peck, concerned enormously with appearances - yet Wyler shows us a warm creature easily capable of love and affection.
We feel with Heston - who has grown up loving a woman who has put him in his place and who has now tied herself to a stranger - who will presumably in time became his boss even though Heston was raised as practically a stepson to Bickford. We see Heston subtly change over the course of the film - to an independence of Bickford that is wonderfully done.
The astonishing courage of Bickford's character, his stamina, his truly rugged independence, his native refinement, and his outrage at the coarseness of the Hennessys, is so well-drawn.
Ives' character is brilliantly drawn too - a great sense of fair play, an admiration for gentlemen - which he is decidedly not and knows - a feeling that he has never gotten much of what he wanted, his disappointment in his son - these are fascinating to see.
This is really a great movie - with great characters who themselves cause the plot to go the only way it could.
My only objection is the too neat ending - but Simmons and Peck just looking at each other is SO right.
Don't miss this. It is both powerful and subtle - it is never rushed and devotes time to the development of all the seven characters which I find quite rate in movies generally.
Thus, we see Simmons and Baker together alone - and Baker's comment, "You always think you know everything" to Simmons gives us a pretty strong idea of their characters' relation before the movie ever began.
We see Heston alone with Baker - his barely suppressed desire breaking out - and her feeling that he is beneath her.
We see wonderful scenes of Bickford and Heston alone together - and the great scene where we realize that the men hold with Heston far more than with their nominal boss when they refuse to go where Heston won't go.
This is monumental - fascinating - very American - and wonderful.