In the Western world, there are many films about religious themes.
From "The Da Vinci Code", "Angels and Devils" to "Silent Hill".
Silent Hill
Most of them are devoted to digging into the hidden theological core, or criticizing the ignorance of human nature through blind worship.
Alienated religious devils, brutal ways of dying, and unsolvable mysteries have become symbols unique to these films.
But at the same time, they are also accompanied by unfavorable viewing elements such as "difficult to understand", "complex", "brain-burning" and so on.
The Seven Deadly Sins
Among them, the appearance of "Seven Deadly Sins" jumped out of this circle and became a lone ranger.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > the first five homicides</h1>
The English name of the movie has only one common word-—— "Seven".
7 is a religiously mysterious number, which is most fully expressed in the Old Testament.
God made Adam in 7 days, taking out Adam's 7th rib and making Eve.
Satan's original form was a fire dragon with 7 heads, and there were 7 fallen angels in the world called Satan.
Seven-headed Satan
After the 16th century, the Catholic Church directly used the image of Satan's seven demons to represent the 7 sins — arrogance, jealousy, rage, laziness, greed, gluttony, and lust.
The "Seven Deadly Sins" are not crimes that require judgment, punishment, and reparation, but primitive human desires that cause sin.
Theft, for example, is the crime of greed, which stems from the desire for wealth.
These original sins are unavoidable, non-negligible, and binding only crimes.
The movie begins, gloomy and gray New York City, heavy rain pouring, oppressive and cold.
Veteran police officer William (Morgan Freeman) joins a grumpy young man, David (Brad Pitt), in an investigation into a serial murder case.
The first deceased was a fat man, huge and inhuman, and the murderer took a gun and forced him to eat frantically for twelve hours, resulting in the internal organs bursting and a large number of internal bleeding deaths.
The letter on the back wall of the refrigerator proves that he died of "binge eating"
In a narrow sense, "overeating" is equivalent to wasting food.
Dante's view, on the other hand, refers to being addicted to something, such as alcoholism, substance abuse, indulgence in fun, and not thinking about progress.
The second was a lawyer who was forced to cut off a pound of flesh on his stomach because he was making black money. Died of "greed".
According to Dante, greed is an overzealous desire for superiority in money or power, in the hope of getting more than one needs.
The third is a dying addict who survives for a year on antibiotics and drugs, with purulent infections in wounds all over his body, and who will frighten him to death by shining a flashlight in his eyes.
Laziness is actually a manifestation of evasion, irresponsibility, and a waste of time, while in theology, it is the failure to love God with all one's heart.
The fourth is lust, in which the murderer forces the prostitute to kill the prostitute with a leather object with a dagger.
There is a suspicious point here that biblical lust refers to desires that are too strong and immoral
However, the prostitute did not commit the crime of "lust", she only fell for economic or other social reasons.
The fifth is the disfigured proud man who eats by his appearance, who dies tied to a bed, disfigured in his face, and cut off his nose.
Arrogance is considered the most primitive and serious of the Seven Deadly Sins, because Satan has the power to rule the world, and the abuse of power is a form of arrogance.
Judging from the first five sins, it seems that the criminals are really punishing those who sin according to the will of the "Lord" on behalf of The Way of Heaven.
But because these crimes do not constitute a "death penalty", the murderer never does it himself, but only watches their death.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > jealousy and anger</h1>
On day 5, the killer was supposed to continue killing as he had done for the first five days.
But William and David found his house and disrupted the plan.
Murderer: I admire you guys because of today's problems and I'm going to adjust my schedule.
The killer was confident, as you can see from the phone call he made back to his home, when he did not choose to kill David, he had already thought of the ending.
So after two cases of lust and pride, the murderer John (Kevin Spacey) voluntarily turned himself in.
John told the police that there were two bodies left, and if he didn't agree to go with him, he would be exonerated on the grounds of mental illness.
Under the pressure of public opinion, the police had to agree to the conditions.
William Sr., David, and the murderer drove together to the wilderness in the suburbs.
And this conversation in the car undoubtedly exposes the religious core that the whole film wants to discuss.
John: I'm by no means different from ordinary people, but what I've done is very special, my work.
David: But I don't think it's anything special.
John: You haven't seen the whole picture yet. When I'm done, when it's done, it's going to be... It will be difficult for people to fully understand, but cannot deny, events.
Brad: You mean you're doing God's good deeds?
Kevin: God's approach is mysterious.
At this time, the murderer John plays the all-knowing, all-powerful, calm and gentle God, and only he knows where to go and what to do.
On the surface, he was handcuffed and locked in a barred window, but in fact, the real escorts were William Sr. and David.
It is like God ferrying mankind to the other shore of atonement to a destination to fulfill the last two of the seven deadly sins—jealousy and anger.
And the biggest attraction of this film is the final "punishment", David's wife Tracy is not dead?
Some say dead, some say no.
In fact, rationally analyzing the murderer's motives, Tracy must be dead.
The first five dead were all murderers who acted as preachers to punish them, and in the end, the murderer turned into a martyr.
So Tracy had to die to fulfill the meaning of the number 7 in order to truly punish David.
The severed head who hints at Tracy's ending
This can also be seen in the expression and movements of the elder William, including what the murderer said in the car:
John: I should say that I gave you the rest of your life, oh, the remnants.
So even though William the Elder told him that the murderer's purpose was to use his death as a stop to a great work, David was still unable to restrain himself.
He shot anyway, completed the work with his own hands, and was completely defeated.
And humanity, like David, could not get rid of the Seven Deadly Sins, just as David could not get rid of "anger."
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > the fate of modern civilization and religion</h1>
So why is "The Seven Deadly Sins" different from other religious films?
It is because, through the shell of "religion," it speaks of a question of human nature and society.
Through the perspective of William Sr., the film peels back the evil behind New York, a bustling city that symbolizes modern civilization, layer by layer.
At the beginning of the movie, when the elder William investigates a husband murder case, he asks the policeman: Did the child see it?
The police officer complained that he was nosy and did not look for trouble.
Instead of refuting him, william the elder explained it later: he was tired of the indifference of the people, the attitude of not caring about himself.
Also, in the library, William Sr. met a group of idle colleagues.
They stayed here all day, only knowing how to drink and play cards, and when William scolded them why they didn't read, they laughed at themselves for being cultured.
The record player was turned on, and the tune that aired was Bach's Aria on the G Strings, and in the quiet and peaceful melody, the old William was thinking, and they continued to play cards for fun.
The elegant music represented by the spirit of the sages is ignored, and in this episode Bach's pieces are like lamentations for the degradation of civilization.
In the West, the Enlightenment discovered reason, and since then, reason has gradually been pushed to the supremacy.
People's self-awareness was constantly expanding, and they were fully affirmed, so they began to despise God.
In modern times, money has become the only measure of value, and the relationship between people has become increasingly indifferent due to the power of money.
They fell out on each other, didn't care about each other, and all were judged in this gray city.
And what the movie wants to tell us in the end is not how hard life is, how dark it is.
But after you know the ugliness and dirtiness of this world, can you still fight for it?