The seventh character

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The seventh character
Original title The Seventh Sign
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1988
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Carl Schultz
script Clifford Green ,
Ellen Green
production Paul R. Gurian
music Jack Nitzsche
camera Juan Ruiz Anchía
cut Caroline Biggerstaff
occupation

The seventh sign (original title: The Seventh Sign ) is an American feature film from 1988 with Demi Moore , Michael Biehn and Jürgen Prochnow in the leading roles. Directed by Carl Schultz , the script was written by Clifford Green and Ellen Green. The premiere date was April 1, 1988, and the film was released in German cinemas on September 1, 1988.

action

When natural disasters and mysterious events such as the massive deaths of marine fish off Haiti , a blood-red colored river in Nicaragua and a massive cold snap in a village in the Negev desert pile up, some people interpret these as signs of the impending apocalypse .

At this time, full of horrific and brutal human incidents, pregnant Abby, who is married to lawyer Russell Quinn, rents a small apartment above her garage to the mysterious David Bannon. A little later she finds mysterious writings in the subtenant's room and learns from the literary rabbi student Avi that these refer to the end of the world. With the stranger showing a keen interest in Abby's pregnancy, Abby becomes afraid it might be a psychopath and demands that her husband cancel the rental. As more Bible prophecies emerge, Abby suspects that her baby's fate may be linked to those events. The psychological pressure puts the mother-to-be, who has already had several miscarriages, so much that she collapses and even thinks of suicide. When David Bannon asks her to show the hope that is needed to save the world, she is ready to fight for the life of her child.

The fifth sign of the apocalypse is said to be the execution of a martyr . It could be Jimmy, sentenced to death, who killed his parents, who were siblings and fathered him through incest , and who claims divine rights for it. This is defended by Russell Quinn, who seeks a pardon for his mentally handicapped client. Abby also tries desperately to prevent the execution, believing that only by breaking the chain of predictions can she save her baby's life. When Father Lucci shoots Jimmy shortly before the execution of the death sentence, Abby is seriously injured. This turns out to be Cartaphilus , gatekeeper of Pontius Pilate , who once struck Jesus and was therefore condemned by God to live until the return of the Messiah. Father Lucci sees his chance of salvation in the approaching end of the world. David Bannon turns out to be the returning Jesus of Nazareth , whom Abby wanted to give water to drink in an earlier incarnation during the abuse by Cartaphilus, but was harshly rejected by Cartaphilus with the question of whether she wanted to die for him , as she did so wasn't ready.

The seventh and last sign is said to be the birth of a child who does not have a soul, because Guf , the hall of souls, would then be empty. Abby realizes this is her baby, who is about to be born. When she, seriously injured, has the baby, she is repeatedly asked in a vision by Cartaphilus if she would give her life for him . She agrees. The baby is born alive, but Abby dies in childbirth. Through their self-sacrifice and hope in the life of their child, the hall of souls will be filled again. In this way, the apocalypse can be averted at the last moment. David Bannon, present during the birth, leaves the place and instructs Avi in ​​passing to write down the events and announce them to posterity.

Reviews

The seventh character was received very differently by the critics and largely fell through, especially by US critics. While the Dirk Jasper film lexicon sees the film as “a moving, exciting parable about the threatening self-destruction of humanity”, the Fischer Film Almanach (1989) describes it as “a tangled conglomeration of mystical references”. The lexicon of international films speaks of an “exciting mixture of thriller, occult film and melodrama, which does without spectacular scenes of violence, cleverly addresses current moods of catastrophe and fears, but exploits the Bible as a quarry for end-time drivel and a fundamentalist one in religious statements Theology of questionable shape is propagated. "

The reviewer of the Time Out Movie Guide is positive: Schultz's stylish pictures and a staging facing the actors create an unsettling atmosphere of subliminal danger, while the unfolding puzzle creates tremendous tension. The climax of the film works particularly well because of its human component ("Schultz's stylish visuals and sympathetic handling of the actors creates an unsettling atmosphere of understated menace; and the unfolding mystery [...] generates a tremendous cumulative tension, the climactic scene working all the better for being staged on a human scale ").

On the other hand, Hal Hinson in the Washington Post is not very impressed and mentions the seventh character the cinematic implementation of the Revelation of John as a paranoid yuppie fantasy ("Basically" The Seventh Sign "is the Book of Revelation played out as a paranoid yuppie fantasy") and a mixture of She is having a Baby and Das Omen , or in other words She's Having Rosemary's Baby . Director Carl Schultz tells the story fragmentarily in ominous fragments, the real meaning of which only becomes clear when the film steers towards its end ("lays the narrative out in portentous fragments, the significance of which is revealed only as the film slouches to its end") ). The reviewer recognizes serious efforts on the part of the director, but identifies technical deficiencies and a lack of talent, and asks polemically how one should behave towards people who want to save the world through hope , but cannot even manage a simple dialogue scene (“evidence of sweat […] contributed, but not of talent. […] But how are we to react to people who aspire to saving the world through hope, but can't shoot a simple dialogue scene? Wouldn't it be better if they fretted less about man's fate and paid more attention to their craft? ").

Vincent Canby comments critically in the New York Times that filmmakers are usually less interested in the revelation itself than in plundering their enigmatic prophecies for profitable horror films (“Movie makers are less interested in interpreting revelation than in ransacking its enigmatic prophesies for bankable horror films "). Even if the authors have taken some freedom from the source material and the film, compared to The Omen, plays against a more everyday, but no less apocalyptic background (“operates on a somewhat more mundane but no less apocalyptic level”), Canby comes to that In conclusion, the world could certainly take a lesson or two, but it doesn't deserve such a simple-minded film as this one ("The world may well deserve being taught a lesson. It doesn't deserve a film as witless as this").

Awards

The film was nominated for the International Fantasy Film Award .

Trivia

The US comedian Ellen DeGeneres had a brief appearance in the film as a friend of the main character Abby, who ultimately fell victim to the cut. The scene, which would have been DeGeneres' first film role, was shown on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on May 23, 2007 when Demi Moore was a guest on the show.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Short review ( memento of March 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) in the Dirk Jasper Filmlexikon
  2. ↑ The seventh character. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ The Seventh Sign  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the Time Out Movie Guide@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.timeout.com  
  4. ↑ Hal Hinson: The Seventh Sign, The Washington Post, April 1, 1988
  5. ^ A b Vincent Canby : The World in Very Big Trouble , The New York Times, April 1, 1988