Modern Classic: Seven

In 1995 David Fincher followed up his 1992 critical failure Aliens 3 with what is now hailed as a classic: Seven. Based on the seven deadly sins, two detectives, newly transferred Det. David Mills(Brad Pitt) and soon to retire Det. Sommerset(Morgan Freeman) have to hunt down the mysterious killer. But Seven, strangely unlike Fincher's other films, is more about the violent acts then explaining them. With the exception of the final murder, there is hardly any actual violence done on screen. The bodies are never seen being murdered, it's only the aftermath we see. The movie is almost like a buddy cop film if it where set in hell. This is also another major feature as to why Seven is a modern classic.



It's a visually chilling film. It is a very dark film in both content and tone. Bleach Bypass was used to retain the dark shadows on film as opposed to brightening them up. The scene's are set during the day but are still gloomy. It is always raining or dark. It gives the feeling that you are never comfortable. You feel if you were to break open any wall in any of the cities buildings it would be infested with cockroaches. Mills and Sommerset base their research on Dante's Inferno and if the fire is replaced with rain, the setting of Seven is the exact same. The murders add to the ugliness of the world we are put into. It doesn't hide from the gruesomeness, because after the first murder it feels like this type of thing happens all the time. Seven's setting reflects the moral decay of the people who live in it.

With every picture Fincher does, he seems to bring everything together in a human morale tale, or in this case inhuman morale. He's not trying to explain why John Doe has killed, he's trying to show how the people around it will react. Sommerset is calm and reserved and accepts what he sees and tries to solve the crime. Mills is hot headed and is sickened by what he sees and lets it effect his work. Where Seven differs from other movies of it's kind is it's a psychological character study of not John Doe, but the detectives trying to find him and having to swallow what he has left behind in his wake. John Doe, played brilliantly by Kevin Spacey, doesn't appear on screen until half way through the movie as a distant and isn't actually seen or heard from until thirty minutes before the films climax. This film is very much about Mills and Sommerset. Doe challenges thier morales by killing people that in a sick sense deserved to die, but must be brought to justice: A defense lawyer who defends child rapists and killers(Greed), an obese man stealing food from the homeless(Gluttony), a fashion model who changed her face 'that God gave her to sell her soul'(Pride), a 'disease carrying' street hooker(Lust), a man who lives off welfare just to stay in bed all day(Sloth), Doe who envy's Mill's perfect life(Envy), and Mills who ultimatley kills Doe out of rage(Wrath).

It feels more so about Mills though. At one point a photograpgher is trying to take tabloid pictures of the murders and Mills shoves him down some stairs. When the photographer asks his name his profanely yells "Detective Mills, M-I-L-L-S F*** Off!" When the two later raid a house thought to be Doe's house and they find the photographs of Mills showing that Doe was right in front of them (The photographer) and got away. This seems to break Mills. Doe seems to be having fun toying with the psychology of the two detectives. His master climax consists of leading the two out to the middle of nowhere(to where Doe said the final body was buried). He has a delivery man deliver a box to Sommerset who finds that it contains Mill's wife's head. He now has the task of somehow taking the gun away from his partner or verbally preventing him from killing Doe upon discovery his wife is dead. The final sin; wrath. Doe is the victim and Mills has now become what he was trying to hunt in the first place, a cold blooded killer. If Doe was an artist, this sick twisted act would be his masterpiece. Thankfully for the world he's simply a character and it is Fincher who is the artist creating his twisted psychological masterpiece.