Se7en (1995)
Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) has been around for a few years and is only a week away from retirement. He has lost his passion for his work for a while now, and according to himself he has always taken on cases that were almost finished. His worldview is bleak. His younger partner, David Mills (Brad Pitt), is in contrast impatient and ambitious. The dynamic between the two is quickly established as a very light variation of ‘good cop/bad cop’: Somerset is methodical and soft-spoken, Mills is clumsy and impulsive. He’s ready to take on this job with both hands, and to climb the ladder in what he does. He’s dragged himself and his wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow) into this unnamed city, with a desire to save the world. What I really liked was the choice to show how Somerset and Mills deal with the noise of the city differently. In my interpretation, the noise represents the apathy that exists in their world. Somerset uses a metronome to fall asleep, and to distract him from all the commotion and noise outside. He’s used to the city, and has never known anything other than the apathy that exists here, and he knows how to deal with it. Mills and Tracy’s house, on the other hand, vibrates every time a subway train passes by.
When a series of murders takes place over the course of seven days, it quickly becomes clear that murderer John Doe (Kevin Spacey) acts according to his interpretation of divine justice. Pride, greed, sloth, envy, wrath, gluttony and lust. These seven sins are punished, or rather preached. Whether his conviction is actually Christian, or an obsession with ancient scripture, remains unclear to me, but I don't think it matters. In his twisted moral framework, his victims are given the chance to repent, at the cost of their lives. This 'punishment' reminds me of Saw, but with a slightly deeper philosophical layer. The murders that John Doe commits are never shown, only suggested. This allows the viewer to take in information at the same page as the detectives.
So, like I said, Mills drags his wife along to this gruesome city, in a greed for a better career. Somerset, on the other hand, is nearing retirement and doesn't really want to have anything to do with anything anymore. Yet he can't deny his talent, and his passion is rekindled by Mills and the case. Somerset has a greed to apply his knowledge and take on this huge case, while at first he doesn't believe it will go anywhere, and gives in to his sloth. Their collaboration is difficult, until Tracy invites Somerset to her and Mills' for dinner. This scene is one of the highlights of the film for me. When the subway rushes past and Tracy and Mills talk about the estate agent (a laziness to fix this rickety building, or at least to mention that this would happen) and Somerset and Tracy then burst out laughing together. Immediately after this, Somerset and Mills have a closer bond, and they start working together again.
John Doe gets his inspiration from literature. I noticed that David Fincher and Andrew Kevin Walker do this too. It is no coincidence that Dante's inferno is mentioned. In Dante’s Infero, Dante and Virgil travel through hell for seven days. On the seventh day, they leave hell and end up outside. This is also what Somerset and Mills experience, seven days in hell in the city, where rain seems constant and sin after sin is punished, until they travel out of the city on the seventh day. On the seventh day, Dante and Virgil meet the devil, and Virgil has to learn to live with sin. On the seventh day, Somerset and Mills meet John Doe, and Mills falls victim to John Doe’s plan, and commits the sin of anger. John Doe places himself in the sin of jealousy, but in my opinion this is not entirely correct. He could have saved pride for himself. In the seven sins, pride is not as simple as the film makes it seem. Where the film chooses beauty, according to the Catholics (who believe in it) it is an anti-god. Pride is the greatest sin of the seven, the sin of passing judgment, of considering yourself as the moral standard for others.
David Fincher doesn't shy away from gore. In se7en, dark, damp rooms are minimally lit. This gives se7en a visual, gray style, which I think fits the story very well. The camerawork, by Darius Khondji, also clearly emphasizes the emotions of the characters in the final scene. In the 'what's in the box scene', which is also very well-known to people who have never seen this film, handheld technology was chosen when Somerset and Mills are filmed, but the shots are stable when the camera focuses on John Doe. This immediately tells you who has the upper hand in this situation. It is a powerful final scene, in which you can clearly see the years of experience that Somerset has, in contrast to the impulsiveness of Mills. The chase scene between John Doe and Mills also uses handheld.
All in all, I think se7en is a very strong work. While it’s not my go-to genre and type of story (my only gripe is that I find the “male lead’s wife dies for emotional impact, and – oh no! She’s pregnant!” – cliche a bit dull, though I can certainly see the merit in Tracy’s death here), I can’t deny how good it is. With dark cinematography and a cast you’d kill for at the time, this is a tremendously gripping thriller. Fincher was absolutely right not to bother with the planned sequel Ei8ht , which eventually came out as Solace in 2015. Sometimes it’s better not to open what can be left closed.