lee marvin - 7 Men from Now (1956) Discussion

[–] Robbmonster 16 years ago

Yes he was! Charasmatic and strangely handsome. For some reason he reminded me of Billy Zane in Titanic (no, really!)

However...

He never struck me as being THE villain of this piece.

However...

His character is played with great ambiguity. His intentions are revealed gradually, and clearly he is not a nice guy - charming though he is. It is interesting that he doesn't seem to harbour too much or a grudge toward Stride for locking him away - twice - and that his only real motivation is to get his hands on the money.

Also interesting is that all the way through, Masters seems to know something that Stride doesn't. And this is also information that is not conveyed to the audience. Seems to me that Masters briefed the robbers on the identity of the man who would be chasing them, but it is never clearly revealed.

Just saw this film last night on dvd, so it is still fresh in my mind, and I felt like talking about it.

"It's just a movie" is no excuse for filmmakers treating audiences like idiots!

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] ygorshump 16 years ago

I think Marvins great performance in 7 Men is an early template for his portrayal of Liberty Valance in 'The Man who Shot Liberty Valance'.

The manner in which Marvin stands smirking with both hands resting on his six guns in the saloon scene is very 'Liberty like'

"I am only a cabman and a grave robber"

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[–] paulbrasch 16 years ago

Agreed Marvin is one of the best bad guys ever in this film. A brilliant performance that I think even outdoes his turn in Liberty Valance.

Terminate this Thread with extreme prejudice.

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[–] wtl471629 16 years ago

Too bad they didn't use Lee Marvin as the main villain in High Noon. He would have been a great Frank Miller.

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[–] m-j-mooney 15 years ago

Just watched this film and "Vera Cruz" one after the other and was struck by the similarities in the two sets of stars (Scott/Marvin and Cooper/Lancaster). Each film features a "good guy" and a "good bad guy" united in a quest until they have to face each other down at the end. Both good films, but Vera Cruz benefits from the bigger budget.

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[–] spencerc2217 7 years ago

Despite a bigger budget Vera Cruz is a forgettable film next to Seven Men.

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[–] pocomarc 14 years ago

This was Lee Marvin's best performance ever, in my opinion.

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[–] cabbageboy316 14 years ago

Yeah Marvin was awesome here but I'm not sure he's exactly the villain. He spends most of the film as a tweener riding the fence and at the end finally makes the choice to go bad and attempt to take the money, face off with Randolph. This performance set the stage for other tweener characters in the Scott/Boetticher series, like Pernell Roberts in Ride Lonesome or Claude Akins in Comanche Station.

Ironically Scott himself played this sort of role in Ride the High Country.

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[–] jxh13 13 years ago

Good call; great performance, terrific actor. The ambiguity in the character and the performance is just great. He isn't all bad, just willing to take a few shortcuts to get where he wants to be. After Greer stands up for himself and is killed, Marvin says something like, "I once called him half a man. I was wrong." He has a weird set of values, but he *has* a set of values.

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[–] jdforyou1983 (1469) 3 years ago

He was my favorite part of the movie

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