Movie Review

 

Review of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

By Rachel Merkley (March 15, 2015)

Directed by Stanley Donen

102 minutes

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a humorous, song-filled film that depicts the events from the lives of Milly and Adam Pontipee. The time era is 1850 in the Oregon Territory, also referred to as bear country. Adam’s homestead in the mountains has: a house, timberline, and meadows, basically everything one could want except a woman.  The opening scene has Adam venturing into town to stock up on the supplies he needs, one being to stake his claim on a wife. Adam eventually comes across Milly performing her bar maid duties of chopping wood, milking cows, and cooking, which is proof enough she will make a good wife. Milly agrees to marry him once she finishes her chores. On the 12 mile carriage ride to the homestead, Milly marvels through song about what a wonderful day it is as she sees the life she has dreamed about coming true.

Milly’s dream is quickly shattered when she discovers that in addition to Adam, there are six brothers, all of them filthy and unruly. Another revelation is that Adam’s version of a wife is the same as a “hired girl” to keep house and cook. Milly manages to change the brothers and upon the group going into town, the men find women that Adam and the brother’s kidnap and plan to marry. An avalanche triggered from the girl’s cries barricade the pass to the homestead which also gives the brother’s and their captives the rest of winter to fall in love. Milly also finds out she is pregnant and the arrival of Milly’s baby coincides with spring and the pass opening. Adam now being a father to a daughter helps him realize how wrong his actions were and he should return the town’s daughters. However, Adam is unable to remedy the situation because the town’s people arrive to reclaim their daughters. Upon the town’s men reaching their daughters, they hear a baby which the women all claim to be the mother to because then their father’s will let them marry the Pontipee brother they have fallen in love with and fathered the crying baby. The girl’s tactic works and all six participate in a shotgun wedding where the brides and brothers are pronounced “men and wives”.

Evidence of the farming life can be seen in the plot but when watching the movie through the lens of agriculture, the audience can gain a deeper understanding of what the homesteading life in the 1850's could entail, including the aspects of daily life, their entertainment, and the beliefs farmers have.

The daily agricultural living in the 1850's is much different than modern times. The clothing in the film was a representation that could be considered unique to the 1850 agriculture era. Adam began the movie with what could be termed mountain men clothing—brown leather with fringe. Later he and his brothers wore trousers with button up collar shirts with long sleeve. The women also work a collared dress that had arm lengths that varied from elbow length or longer. When the women were performing their duties they wore aprons over their clothing. Under their dresses they wore pantaloons. Looking deeper at the women clothing, they had patches on their skirts which showed that they had limited clothing that they wore until it was unwearable. Milly also had a skirt that appeared to be patchwork, made out of random fabrics available to her. When the women ventured out they also wore bonnets.

Basic things, like utilities, are taken for granted of today but back then it was not as easy to come by. People then used lanterns for light and pumps to bring water to the surface from a well below. In the film this is seen with pumps lining the street and Adam informing Milly that the water is “right outside the front door”. Heat is another utility that required effort to get. Wood burning stoves or fireplaces were prominent in most of the homes and businesses. In addition to this, piles of firewood were stacked next to buildings and Milly and the brothers were shown chopping wood.

Another aspect of daily life is that people usually put forth manual labor in order to provide for themselves and their family. Chores were done by everyone: cutting down trees, plowing, fence making, stock to feed, cows to milk, cooking, cleaning, and sewing. The buildings were also built by themselves or with the help of nearby residents. The buildings that were shown in the film were made of logs. In the town the buildings were located in close proximity to each other and the people that ran the establishment also lived above the business. The homes not located in town were farther apart and created a feeling of isolation as was seen with the Pontipee brothers. The homes were also smaller and in some cases, like the Pontipees, all the children shared a room. Livestock was also shown within close proximity of the buildings. Some of the town buildings had chickens housed in cages next to them, the bar had a cow in its side yard, and the Pontipee’s had a barn nearby with livestock wandering the property. Another characteristic of the era shown was a store that provided all the needed items, including a barber, and farmers have the option to trade what they produce for the items available to purchase. Outside of the stores in town were also tying posts so their patrons could secure their horse and carriage—the form of transportation.

The forms of entertainment in the 1850's also revolve around the role of agriculture. Some of the activities either discussed or performed in the film were: quilting bees, dances, corn huskings, barn raising, picnics, arm wrestling, and going into town. The majority of these forms of entertainment revolve around production which portrays that people who farm are always working but they try to make their work fun. They also make work a social event so they can create relationships with other people while also increasing their output. Finally, their entertainment also portrays how hard of workers the agricultural people are.

The beliefs that agriculture instills in people that work the land is subtle throughout the movie yet if the audience is looking agriculturally, it is more prominent and it provides the characters more depth. There is an understanding illustrated for the homesteading era specifically: farming takes a good portion of the day so there is not a lot of time to waste. Adam demonstrates this when he justifies the lack of courting before his proposal to Milly. He mentions that as homesteaders “there’s not time.” Adam has responsibilities back home, specifically to tend his stock. His duties are what also prevent him from returning to town with his grain for “another five months”. There is also a purpose for the people that have migrated west and that is to make something out of the land. A term Adam used was “stakin’” a claim when finding a wife but this was actually the belief that the west was available to be claimed and the people just had to work the land to own it. In addition to this, the farmers had a hand in developing the country as a whole. This was also represented by the town preacher who once informed Milly that she needed to get married because “the country needed to be settled”. Further, when Milly’s mother died, she left her “packets of seeds for a flower garden” which shows the value that farmers place on working the land. Irrevocably, farming was important to these people.

A second belief is that farmers are hard working. The list of chores described in the movie support this but also Adam’s need for a “wife who can work alongside him” and Milly’s character responding that before she can marry him she’d “have to finish [her] chores.” Moreover, Milly demonstrates this when she turns the brothers and the house into a product for her to be proud of and she jumps right into helping run the farm with the brothers.

A third belief portrayed in the film is that farmers have religious beliefs. Milly’s father left her two books, one being the bible which shows great importance to the people from this era as it was a treasured keepsake they passed down. Another form of evidence from the movie was Adam’s parents chose bible names for all of their kids and Milly carried on the tradition with her daughter. The bible does have a presence in the characters life shown when they return home from farming and offer a prayer before eating, their prayers ask for assistance with farming, and they read the bible as a household before turning into bed.

The film, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, does indeed contain agricultural themes that can be found in the culture of 1850 homesteaders and it is evident when looking at the deeper at the movie. The daily life of homesteaders is depicted as helping establish the land; their entertainment happens parallel to them producing; and their beliefs that: working the land contributes to a greater cause, it takes hard work, and there is a religious aspect to it.

Work Cited

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Warner Home Video, 1954. Film.

Legislating Agriculture

Before learning about the Farm Bill this week in my college course, I had never heard of the act. I would also think that most American’s in this country would have the same reply if they were asked about it. This does not mean that the majority of American’s are not familiar with an aspect of it because the term “food stamps” has been used in everything from politics, song lyrics, jokes in late night television, to a stigma of people receiving welfare. My knowledge about food stamps originally consisted of a government funded program that gave financial assistance to low income families but I have learned researching it that it is so much more than that.

                                                   

(image: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/02/26/74-Billion-Food-Stamp-Program-Budget-Crosshairs)

Food stamps have been a part of the United States Department of Agriculture since 1939 when it was known as the FSP and then the Pilot Food Stamp Program from May 29, 2961-4. On January 31, 1964, under President Johnson, Congress passed legislation to make the Food Stamp Act permanent. Many changes have happened to the program since then, including it being renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by the 2008 Farm Bill. (USDA, 2014) 

 In 2013, 46.5 million of "vulnerable citizens", meaning households with children, elderly, and disabled, participated in this program--half of all SNAP participants are children. (Feeding America) It is vital that children receive proper nutrition in their developing years and it is through this program that low income families have assistance and food stamps have been shown to create a "marked health improvement both in childhood and later years." (Mother Jones, 2013)

                  

                      (image: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/food-stamps-statistics-SNAP-economic-benefits)

                     

           (image: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/food-stamps-statistics-SNAP-economic-benefits)

To qualify for the program, applicants must have a gross income up to 130% of the federal poverty line, with a net income of less than or equal to 100% of the poverty line and subject to an asset test. SNAP fosters a strong work incentive because it requires adults to work a minimum of 20 hours per week or to be involved in a training program to receive benefits beyond 3 months of a year. Recipients must also re-qualify every 6 months which hinders people from abusing the system along with phasing receivers out because increases in their income also decreases the amount they receive. (Feeding America; Snap to Health, 2015)

As I mentioned before, food stamps fall under the Farm Bill and it is such an immense program that it was termed “the cornerstone if the Nation’s food assistance safety net.” (USDA, 2014) The pie chart below gives a visual to just how much a part of it, it is.

(image: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/28/the-950-billion-farm-bill-in-one-chart/)

The program’s size also has a major economic benefit for America, according to SNAP to Health, (2015)

• According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, each $1 billion of retail generated by SNAP creates $340 million in farm production, $110 million in farm value-added, and 3,300 farm jobs

           

       (image: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/food-stamps-statistics-SNAP-economic-benefits)

•  Every $1 billion of SNAP benefits also creates 8,900-17,900 full-time jobs
•    An additional $5 of SNAP benefits generates $9 in total economic activity
•  83% of SNAP benefits, equal to $53.4 billion, were spent at 36,500 supermarkets around the U.S.; the remaining 17% was spent at 180,000 small retail stores (including grocery stores, farmers’ markets, wholesalers, and meal services), for a total of $11 billion
•   SNAP beneficiaries spend more dollars on food in local stores than eligible non-participants
•   An increase in SNAP participation by 5% would result in 2.1 million low-income Americans receiving $973 million in SNAP benefits, generating $1.8 billion in new economic activity 

(image: http://www.seela.org/hollywood-farmers-market/)

For local Utah farmer's an economic benefit is also felt now that food stamp recipients can use their EBT cards at a farmers' market booths where SNAP funds are exchanged for tokens to purchase the following from vendors: 

• Fruits, vegetables or herbs
• Meats, fish or poultry
• Breads and other baked goods
• Dairy, honey or maple products
• Pickled goods, jam, honey and dressings
• Cider and other non-alcoholic beverages
• Other non-hot foods for the household to eat
• Seeds and plants to grow food (UAH, 2011)

The effects that food stamps have on farming can definitely be seen with the benefits but that also means that changes made to the program can also have a negative impact. The Agricultural Act of 2014, aka Farm Bill reform of 2014, made changes to the Nutrition sector where they now provide $200 million for job training and $100 million to increase fruit and vegetable purchases while there was an $8.6 billion cut to the food stamp program.  (USDA, 2014) Another result was a loop hole was corrected for the "heat and eat" states—a third of the country. (Washington Post, 2014) 

                        

(image: http://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/-heat-and-eat-and-snap-changes-in-the-2014-farm-bill.aspx)

The result?  Millions lost their food stamp benefit entirely while hundreds of thousands of others had their benefits reduced. This also means the economic benefits listed above from the nutrition gained by children, jobs in both stores and on farms, economic spending, and the amount of SNAP funds spent at farmers' markets will also likely to be reduced. The changes from the reform are too current for me to find  figures for but one thing is for sure, I learned a significant amount of information this week about the relationship between the Farm Bills, food stamps, and the economy. I would also recommend that the other people that will look stumped if they were asked about the Farm Bill should look into the Farm Bill more because they will also learn a lot more about farming and how the government spends tax dollars, which all tax payers should know!

                                                              Works Cited

2014 Farm Bill Highlights. (2014, March 1). Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.usda.gov/documents/usda-2014-farm-bill-highlights.pdf 

Chokshi, N. (2014, February 5). Why the food stamp cuts in the farm bill affect only a third of states. Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/02/05/why-the-food-stamp-cuts-in-the-farm-bill-affect-only-a-third-of-states/ 

Cook, C. (2013, October 25). CHARTS: The hidden benefits of food stamps. Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/food-stamps-statistics-SNAP-economic-benefits 

Food Stamps at Farmers Markets. (2011, January 1). Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.uah.org/projects-initiatives/fms/ 

Plumer, B. (2014, January 28). The $956 billion farm bill, in one graph. Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/28/the-950-billion-farm-bill-in-one-chart/

SNAP: Frequently Asked Questions. (2015, January 1). Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.snaptohealth.org/snap/snap-frequently-asked-questions/#howmany 

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). (n.d.). Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.feedingamerica.org/take-action/advocate/federal-hunger-relief-programs/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program.html 

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). (2014, November 20). Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/short-history-snap 

The Real Benefits of SNAP. (n.d.). Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.snaptohealth.org/snap/the-real-benefits-of-the-snap-program/ 

The Power of Marigolds

When my husband and I bought our home we knew we wanted to plant a garden where we could make use of an awkward yard layout, teach our children to benefit of hard work, and have a variety of produce at our beckon call. Gardening was, and is still, a learning process. We began our efforts with the understanding that we needed to put seeds in the ground, water it, and weed the area but we soon found there was more to worry about. We started to see beetles eating all our vine crops before they were ready for us to pick. We were at a loss at how to evict our uninvited garden tenants without using chemicals. 

Fortunately, another aspect of our home ownership was the instant community of individuals that also desired to be gardeners. As friendships were built, we engaged in “yard talk”. Topics were covered from what plants worked for them, where the best prices were, and how hurdles were overcome. One neighbor mentioned to us that she planted marigold around her garden borders because they omit a smell that, while pleasing to humans, are drive away insects. The next year we bought flats of marigolds and hoped they did the trick to save our crops. We did not see our desired outcome and we wondered if we didn't plant our marigolds close enough together or if maybe marigolds did not have a super power like we were told.

This week in my farm literature I learned that there is a connection between farming and folklore—something I have never considered. The definition of folklore is “informal traditional culture” broken down further is the lore is “passed on…from person to person”. My neighbor was an informal resource, it was told orally, and the shared remedy has the potential to being passed gardener to gardener. Of the four main categories of folklore: “things we say, things we do, things we make, and things we believe”, the marigold folklore can also fall under three of them—my neighbor me about it, and we both planted marigolds because we believed in the power of the marigold. Thus, planting marigolds to repel bugs is indeed folklore. 

I feel it is also important to note that being termed folklore does not automatically mean the lore is false either. For me, the marigolds did not work. When I looked on www.snopes.com, a common resource for validating folklore, I found under the “Repel Tell” category that it is deemed false. However, being termed folklore does contribute to the understanding of farming. Farmers are confronted with problems that are unpredictable, out of their control, and they might go to lengths to overcome them—including home remedies. It also informs us that some farmers care about their final product not being tarnished with chemicals that can be harmful to the people that ingest their product. Finally, farming folklore highlights that there is a community within farming that are resources and means of support for farmers to go to when needed.

Sources:

Kinkead, J., Funda, E., and McNeill, L. "The Homestead Act of 1862." Farm: A Multimodal Reader.  Fountainhead Press, 2014. 235. Print.

Sutherland, B. (2010, January 1). Marigolds. Retrieved February 15, 2015, from http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/chiwonlee/plsc211/student papers/article10/Sutherland, Brian Lee/ 

Snopes.com: Mosquito Repel Lore. (2003, January 1). Retrieved February 15, 2015, from http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/skeeters.asp 

Unknown. (2011, January 1). Retrieved February 15, 2015, from http://www.vegedge.umn.edu/vegpest/cucs/squabug.htm 

Tracing my Farming Roots

       The task of tracing my genealogical roots to farming took me to my maternal grandfather, Benjamin Earnest Harker, whom spent the majority of his life farming his pieces of Idaho, despite the historical events that affected his agricultural practices.

(Ben is the one sitting under the window)

Ben was born May 11, 1903 in Taylorsville, UT. In 1905, his family relocated near Jamestown, ID where they cleared the land and built their farm. The farming Ben experience included all types of livestock, fruits, vegetables, and grain. In 1918, the family moved to a larger farm two miles west near Stanton, where they added honey to their production. When Ben was 14, he was taken out of school to help on the farm as he was needed to help in the absence of his brother, who joined the army to fight in World War I. The effects of this had Ben doing “a man’s work” and there were now 18 people at to feed at the dinner table because his brother’s family moved in with them. In 1918, the Spanish Influenza epidemic shook his community and family to then have the typhoid fever hit them in 1919 and 1920. Ben's sister died of the fever which caused her children to come live with the family. The addition to the household definitely affected their farming as now they had to produce more to feed the larger family along with trying to maintain the farm while the people who worked were sick.

(Benjamin Earnest Harker)

Ben worked for his father on the family farm until his younger brothers could take his place in 1922. For a few years before Ben acquired his own land, he worked on other people’s farms for income. One of the farm jobs he obtained because of a local farmers remark that he produced “the prettiest and best tasting potatoes he had ever seen” and his father’s remark that “there isn’t much that he doesn’t know about farming”. This can be credited to him working on the farm at a young age and devoting his whole day to the work starting at age 14. A few years later Ben met and married Anna Elizabeth Pehrson on Dec 18, 1929 and they started a life and family together.

(Anna Elizabeth Pehrson)

During the Depression years, Ben’s family had plenty to eat because they farmed what they needed. However, it was difficult to replace their clothing when it wore out so they resorted to making their shoes, gloves, and underwear. Times were quire rough and Ben fell a year behind on his farm payments, much like most farmers at this time in history. In addition to this, the winter of 1934-5 the children suffered with the whooping cough. Ben stuck things out and in 1935, he made a good sale that paid off all his current debt and expenses and he was able to return to the lifestyle of maintaining a garden to feed his family and animals and sell the excess for income. In 1938, Ben’s wife contracted typhoid fever and died, leaving him with four young children. That year Ben had a lovely crop of sugar beets but harvesting was hard, perhaps because of his new mister mom role, but his neighbors came and helped him just as they did the year before when his wife was sick.

One year later in Logan, UT, on February 8, 1939, Ben married a widow with two children, Ethel Dye Monson. Ethel was not foreign to farming as she grew up working on her family farm in Firth, ID. Ethel herded cows, hailed hay, planted potatoes, and thinned beats. She also helped out on neighboring farms to help purchase her family’s clothing. Ethel was even known to kill a chicken by stepping on its neck and yanking upwards, to then gut and pluck the feathers so she could cook the chicken for dinner. With Ben's family now totaling nine, his 40 acres of land was no longer enough to provide for them so they relocated to the Lava Side area on a larger piece of land where his farming continued.

(Ben and Ethel with their now 7 children. 2 daughter would be added later)

          Farming was put on the back burner for Ben in 1945 when he and Ethel was asked to work in the new Idaho Falls Temple. His neighbors would come help do the work while he was gone and later years he rented his land out because his older children had left home and he no longer had help on the farm. With the aspect of his family growing smaller, Ben and his family relocated to smaller land, where they still maintained a cow for the milk, a calf for the beef, and chickens. Even in these later years when his farming effort declined, he was still able to remark that everything on the dinner table had been produced by them. In Ben's later years be took a position working for the state mental hospital in Blackfoot as a farm supervisor so farming continued to be the way he made a living, just in a new way.

(Ben, on the right, in front of his retirement home)

        In 1969, Ben retired from the hospital and he moved with his wife and their youngest daughter, my mom, to a home, not a farm. Their backyard still allowed them to maintain a nice garden which he worked himself and later, in his 70's, supervised the work from his deck while sitting in his wheel chair. In 1986, Ben was moved to a living center where he still could be seen wearing his hickory stripped bib overalls that were a daily staple from his work as a farmer. Ben died January 25, 1994. Ben was never rich but his family never wanted either. The historical events that occurred during Ben's life time: war, disease, and the Great Depression, were hurdles that Ben was able to work through successfully. I think my grandpa's success as a farmer was because of what being a farmer creates a person: farmers are disciplined, hard working, they appreciate the simple things, and they value what they have because they helped create it.

(Ben and Ethel Harker) 

Resource: Johnson, Mary Susan. Personal interview 18 Jan 2015.

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