Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

The Seventh Sign Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson September 17, 2018

I'd be an understatement to say that The Seventh Sign experienced a stormy production. In some new and illuminating interviews on this Blu-ray, the husband-wife screenwriting duo Clifford and Ellen Green discuss the challenges they faced in getting their original script The Boarder accepted by a studio, only to later request that their names be removed from the final credits. Like David Seltzer before them, the Greens were fascinated by The Book of Revelation and the Sevens Signs from God contained therein. But unlike Seltzer's preference to have an Antichrist at the center of The Omen, the Greens opted for male and female sacrificial figures. The Greens pitched their idea to executive producer Paul R. Gurian, who gave them the green light to go ahead with their screenplay. The Greens had packed their script with eschatological themes but it lacked a story. They made revisions and submitted their draft to TriStar Pictures. (The Greens maintain that The Seventh Sign is their favorite screenplay.) When cast and director were chosen, problems arose. The Greens envisioned their heroine Abby Quinn to be in her late thirties to mid forties so while they had nothing against Demi Moore, they deemed the 25-year-old actress too young for this pivotal role. The Greens also had philosophical and creative differences with Australian-based filmmaker Carl Schultz (Careful, He Might Hear You), who was tapped by Tri-Star to direct. Schultz saw the work The Seventh Sign less as an apocalyptic thriller than a romantic drama between Abby and her husband Russell Quinn (Michael Biehn), a lawyer whose defending a young theologian afflicted with Down's Syndrome. Interestingly, Biehn told film journalist Rick Bentley that an earlier draft of the Greens' script had Russell caring only about a car he wanted to rebuild. Biehn approached Schultz about supplying Russell with more care and compassion. The character was rewritten but it's unknown by whom. Biehn wanted to get away from the heroic, active, and aggressive characters he'd played in films like The Terminator and Aliens. In the finished film, however, Russell Quinn is still too much a weak link to Abby because he's not curious and inquisitive enough to what's happening to her and thus, unsupportive. Granted, he's consumed with trying to save Jimmy Szaragosa (John Taylor) from going to the gas chamber. Jimmy set his parents on fire because they were brother and sister, an incestuous relationship that he declared violated the Law of God. Now Jimmy has to stare down the Law of Man. (The Seventh Sign is set in Venice, California where it shows was a death penalty state in 1988.)

It's unknown exactly when the Greens requested to be off the film but actor Peter Friedman, who is outstanding as Father Lucci, states in an interview on this disc that things soured during a read-through at a pre-production meeting. What struck the nail in the coffin for the Greens is when the couple attended a rough cut of the picture arranged by the studio. The Greens departed and decided to use pseudonyms: Ellen Green used W.W. Wicket (which she and her husband also used on a screenwriting credit for SpaceCamp [1986]) and Clifford Green assumed the mysterious name of George Kaplan, the namesake for the never-seen spy that Cary Grant's Roger Thornhill is mistaken for in North by Northwest. No one in the North American press who covered The Seventh Sign at the time (except for a writer at the Los Angeles Times) knew about the true identities of the writers. (The Australian newspapers, which reported on and interviewed Schultz, did know their real names.) There were additional problems for TriStar. A couple of weeks before the film's wide release (oddly placed on Good Friday and Passover), the filmmakers were still not finished with post-production. Shirley Eder, an entertainment columnist who wrote about movies for about four decades in the Detroit Free Press, reported that circa March 19, 1988, Tri-Star Pictures invited fifteen members of the press to Hollywood to view a forty-minute cut of The Seventh Sign. Eder described the footage as a combination of The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby. Why couldn't the press corps see the full film? Eder received an explanation from none other than Demi Moore. "The film is locked. It's just not mixed and they couldn't take it apart to show the whole movie, and then try to get it back in time to put it all together," the star revealed.

I've read the production draft script by the Greens and can tell you that many of the scenes are filmed by Schultz just as they were written. However, there are several scenes photographed that ended up on the cutting room floor and some others that apparently didn't get shot. (Shout! Factory has some nice production photographs of excised shots that they've intercut with the interviews.) Clifford Green complained that a number of scenes got shuffled around to he and his wife's dismay. One positive change that Schultz made is when he bridged two interrelated scenes together and this works better in the final cut than it does on paper. Ultimately, the Greens thought that their written work's narrative cohesiveness and clarity was obfuscated by the editing. Although the script is by no means perfect, the movie would have been served better had Schultz kept most of the scribes' scenes and their structure intact. Pointed criticism by the AP's film critic Dolores Barclay is justified: "What's not easy to figure out is why the filmmakers didn't pay more attention to organization and sense in their production, and plug in the many holes that make The Seventh Sign the eighth wonder of muddled movies."

The Seventh Sign Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For its worldwide premiere on Blu-ray, Shout! Factory has put The Seventh Sign on a MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 and given the very solid 2.35:1 transfer an average bitrate of 31997 kbps. The opening titles—overlaid to a sequence set in Haiti— appear clear and sharp. There is good texture and a sliver of grain. The transfer occasionally sports some white specks but this has to easily surpass all of the SD transfers. I would say that the visuals replicate what reviewers saw in the spring of 1988. Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times described The Seventh Sign as "an extremely good-looking movie...filled with ravishing vistas, perfectly balanced, flooded with clear light." See Screenshot #s 5, 9, 10, and 14. Malcolm L. Johnson of the Hartford Courant called Juan Ruiz Anchía's cinematography lucid and strikingly composed, which I echo. See #20 in particular. Other scenes "are filmed with a hazy, foggy look to relate a foreboding feeling," as Rick Bentley of Town Talk (LA) pointed out. See #11.

Shout! has given the 97-minute feature twelve scene selections.

The Seventh Sign Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout! has given The Seventh Sign's original Dolby 2.0 Surround mix a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo (2088 kbps, 24-bit). Jack Nitzsche's score is a nice synthesis of Gregorian chant, keyboards, strings, woodwinds, chimes, and pipes. It made such an impression on me that I sought out the long out-of-print album released by Cinedisc (get a copy if you can!). Dialogue is usually clear although it can fluctuate depending on the speaker's accent. There are some great ambient f/x on the track such as the baseball-sized hail and the swooshing winds portending the storm.

Shout!'s optional English SDH provide a complete transcription of the dialogue.

The Seventh Sign Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No DVD of The Seventh Sign had a single extra but Shout! recorded an impressive set of recent interviews.

• NEW Interview with Actor Michael Biehn (11:10, 1080p) - Biehn appears filmed in his home. He talks about how he wanted his character of Russell Quinn to be distinguished from roles he played prior to The Seventh Sign. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Interview with Director Carl Schultz (20:21, 1080p) - Schultz's interview is recorded in the UK where he currently resides. The soft-spoken Hungarian-born filmmaker has a very different take and perspective on the original script. He speaks highly of the screenplay in fact and explains the type of genre film he wanted to make from that material. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Interview with Screenwriters Clifford and Ellen Green (30:01, 1080p) - this is the interview that you'll want to want to watch first. Clifford and Ellen are recorded separately. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Interview with Actor Peter Friedman (20:13, 1080p) - a wonderful interview with the actor who portrays Father Lucci. Friedman goes into the research he consulted and his working relationships with Schultz and the Greens, who he remains friends with. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Interview with Actor John Taylor (10:52, 1080p) - Taylor addresses how he approached the part of Jimmy Szaragosa as well as some of the other films he's appeared in.

• NEW TV Spots (1:04) - two TV spots that networks aired to promote The Seventh Sign.

The Seventh Sign Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Seventh Sign is a convoluted adaptation of The Book of Revelation with an all-too brief exploration of Judeo-Christian myths and the Signs of the Apocalypse. In spite of the production's myraid difficulties and numerous alterations to the original screenplay, I'm recommending the movie largely on the basis of excellent performances by Peter Friedman, Manny Jacobs, and John Taylor (each of whom deserved more screen time). Demi Moore was too young for the central role but I'm also giving her credit for delivering a noble and valiant performance. Other highlights include Juan Ruiz Anchía's masterful photography and Jack Nitzsche's mystical-sounding score. The Seventh Sign has blossomed into an audience favorite and I recommend that you pick up this very good package.