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A Must See: Seven Men From Now at Symphony Space
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A real treat for New York moviegoers on Sunday October 19 is a rare theatrical screening of Seven Men From Now (1956) at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th Street). Seven Men is a deceptively small-looking but powerful b-movie oater starring iconic Westerners Randolph Scott and Lee Marvin. Directed by cult favorite Budd Boetticher and produced by John Wayne’s Batjac Productions, Seven Men is enfant terrible Jean-Luc Godard’s favorite Western, and for once I can agree with him about something. It’s a must see.
The movie's plot, almost Greek in its dramatic ruthlessness, concerns former sheriff Ben Stride’s (Scott) search for the septet of the title, who are responsible for his wife’s death in a holdup. Scott, little known today, started out as a startlingly handsome second lead in the 1930s and matured into a stone-faced but curiously empathetic actor, and he made several classic westerns. Seven Men is one of the two finest, the other being Ride the High Country, his last movie and one of Sam Peckinpah’s first film efforts. Marvin, in one of his first prominent roles, is delightful as the scurrilous object of Scott’s enmity. The other actors in Seven Men include Gail Russell, a talented actress and great beauty whose too-short alcohol-drenched life was one of the inspirations for Jane Fonda’s turn in The Morning After (not a bad little movie itself).
Seven Men from Now is being shown as part of the film series Paul Schrader’s Personal Choice, which includes some of Schrader’s own films and two other treasures, Dreyer’s Day of Wrath (1943) and Bresson’s 1951 Diary of A Country Priest. Both are also rarely screened and are well worth the trip to 95th Street.
Movietimes are 4 and 8 pm. Tickets are $11, $9 for seniors, but if you read my previous column on budget movie-going, you’ll know that it pays to belong—tickets for Symphony Space members are only $7!
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