7th Heaven

BySheikh Javed Mansuri
7th Heaven

Director Frank Borzage first transports us to a dark, ugly, seedy world of poverty and inequality in Paris. The pre-code masterpiece deals with the later-taboo topics of abuse, prostitution and atheism. The Hayes’ Code was designed to present and protect “moral decency” on film. But by showing some of the realities of life that the Hayes’ Code prohibited, 7th Heaven provides a beautiful picture of what moral decency can actually be.

Chico calls himself an atheist in one breath but blames God for his troubles in the next. He is arrogant, angry because “Bon Dieu” doesn’t give him everything he thinks he deserves, constantly reminding God that he’s a “very remarkable person.” But out of that arrogance, Chico asks the biggest question that all people people of faith struggle with, even though he doesn’t always consider himself to be a person of faith. By addressing God as “Bon Dieu,” he claims that God is good and asks the age-old-question: How can a good God let bad things happen to good people?

The movie never attempts to answer that question. Instead, it shows us how different people wrestle with the predicament in very different ways and how they grow more by asking the question than by any attempt to answer it. We see the struggle through the eyes of several characters. The story’s most important way of asking this question comes in the form of a romance. Chico is not as remarkable as he tells everyone he is, but he does do one remarkable thing. He rescues Diane, his eventual wife, from her abusive sister and from a situation that would have forced her into prostitution. The rest of the movie shows how Diane continually rescues Chico as they struggle with that spiritual question collectively and pursue their “7th heaven,” which is the ideal of God’s goodness reflected in the love of people for each other.

– Ed Bertram

  1. Directed by: Frank Borzage
  2. Produced by: William Fox Sol M. Wurtzel
  3. Written by: Austin Strong Benjamin Glazer Katherine Hilliker H. H. Caldwell Bernard Vorhaus
  4. Music by: William P. Perry Erno Rapee
  5. Cinematography by: Ernest Palmer Joseph A. Valentine
  6. Editing by:Barney Wolf
  7. Release Date: 1927
  8. Running Time: 110
  9. Language: Silent

Arts & Faith Lists:

2020 Top 100 — #83

Similar Posts

  • Ran

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    Blending 16th Century Japanese history, traditional Noh theater conventions, and a Shakespearean narrative, Kurosawa’s Ran tells the story of an aging feudal lord and his sons. Patterned after King Lear, Lord Hidetora wishes to retire after 50 years of conquest and bloodshed. Betrayed by two power-grasping sons, he instead must flee into the wilderness accompanied only by…

  • Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    It seems hardly coincidental that two films on the life of children’s television host and ordained Presbyterian minister Fred Rogers were released in as many years.  A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019), a feature starring Tom Hanks and directed by Marielle Heller, was nominated for the Top 100 but didn’t make the cut.  Morgan Neville’s 2018 documentary, Won’t…

  • Faust

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    A useful starting point when approaching Friedrich Wilhelm (F. W.) Murnau’s Faust is Rembrandt’s 1652 etching of the same name. In it, we see Faust alone in his library, poring through parchments, surrounded on all sides by scientific paraphernalia. But Rembrandt pays little attention to the things in the room and, instead, directs our focus toward Faust’s desperate…

  • Au hasard Balthazar

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    With a rigorous style that is often off-putting to newcomers, Bresson eschews the usual emotional cues we’ve become conditioned to expect at the movies. His editing is, above all, efficient—refusing to emphasize one moment over another. We’re forced to pay fierce attention and draw our own conclusions about which words and gestures were important. But…

  • Day of Wrath

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    There are few films that fill us with such righteous indignation as Day of Wrath. Featuring empathetic characters caught in a callous system, the film can easily evoke our anger. Religious intolerance and dehumanizing persecution are nothing new, of course, but Day of Wrath reminds us that it has a long history. At the same time, the film…

  • Witness

    BySheikh Javed Mansuri

    Review coming. Directed by: Peter Weir Produced by: David Bombyk Edward S. Feldman Wendy Stites Written by: William Kelley Pamela Wallace Earl W. Wallace Music by: Maurice Jarre Cinematography by: John Seale Editing by: Thom Noble Release Date: 1985 Running Time: 112 Language: English Arts & Faith Lists: 2020 Top 100 — #77