Great Films: Se7en (1995)

GREAT FILMS: SE7EN
Directed by David Fincher

As critics and audiences alike go ga-ga for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, lets take a trip back to 1995, when Benjamin Button director David Fincher's only job had been Alien 3. After a luke-warm response to that film, Fincher approached a moderately green screenwriter in Andrew Kevin Walker about directing one of his screenplays. It was a film about two cops tracking down a serial killer. Pretty generic stuff, it seems, but Walker's script along with the masterful cinematic eye of Fincher went on to become one of the best and most disturbing psychological thrillers ever made.

Walker's script is about William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a homocide detective in the gritty parts of New York City. Retirement is approaching in just seven days, and it can't come any faster for Somerset, who has allowed the grizzly murders that he witnesses everyday to effect his view on the world. He no longer wants to see the darkest aspects of humanity, but just wants to spend some time by himself. Det. David Mills (Brad Pitt) is the new transfer who will be mentored in NYC Homicide by Somerset before his departure a week later. Somerset does not trust Mills' confidence and impulsiveness, and does his best to convince him that working homicide in this town is different from working it any place else.

When they find a 500-pound man dead, face first in a plate of spaghetti, Somerset is concerned that the bizarre murder (apparently "fed to death") will only be the beginning of a stretch of murders. His suspicions come true when he finds the word "gluttony" written on the wall of the fat man's home. The next morning, Mills is put in charge of a case involving an important defense attorney who was stabbed to death in his high-level office. The word "greed" is written in the office's carpet with the attorney's blood. Somerset is able to put it together, a man is going around murdering those who break any of the "seven deadly sins".

Even as they get closer and closer to the killer (they find out that his name is John Doe), the strategic murderer is still able to complete his works of extreme violence. Each time performing the next killing with more malice and perversion. They find a man that John Doe has literally strapped and bound to a bed for an entire year, nourishing him just enough to stay alive, but not enough to spare him incredible pain (Sloth). They find a prostitute stabbed to death in quite an untorthodox fashion (Lust). They find a pretty girl who commited suicide after John cut up her face (Pride).

Everything leads to the film's most powerful moment: it's third act. With still a half-hour left in the film, John Doe reveals himself. Covered in blood, he surrenders to Mills and Somerset, despite being only two murders away from finishing what he started. Unlike many thrillers, the film's killer is given equal ground when he's on the screen. We know that he is evil, but he is also articulate, and most of all, tired of the way people flaunt their sins in the face of everyone who can see. John Doe is played by Kevin Spacey.

Leading up to that reveal, the film is pulsating with suspense as each murder is unveiled with shocking detail, but the film's entire dynamic changes once Doe is on the screen. In a scene of brilliant writing and acting, Mills, Somerset, and Doe sit in a police car as John promises to drive them to the next two corpses before completely surrendering to the police. Mills chides Doe for being a psychotic, but the soliloquy that John then indulges in is one so poetic, you are very nearly moved by Doe's nihilistic actions. A strong case could be made that these are career-best performances from Freeman, Pitt, and Spacey.

The real star, though, is Fincher. He would gain a legion fandom four years later when he directed the cult classic Fight Club, but Se7en is the film that brought him to the forefront of formidable filmmakers. He washes the entire film in darkness, and dresses the movie's sets as if they were from the 1940's. A dark story already indeed, but Fincher is not satisfied enough as he fills the screen with shadows and the dampest, darkest corners of the world. Never before have I seen a present-day movie setting look more like Hell.

Despite the film's unrelenting violence (each murder is covered with incredibly graphic notice), the film became one of the biggest hits of 1995. It undoubtedly helped Spacey boost his profile before winning the Oscar the next year for The Usual Suspects (I'm sure there are many today who would rather have awarded him for this film instead). It was Brad Pitt's first real box-office success as a lead performer, and he would continue to be one of the biggest stars in the world (it's amazing the lack of commercial success a celebrity of his calibur has acheived). This is a film that is completely unrelenting, and set the bar for murder mysteries for the next decade.

*note: Unfortunately, the success of Se7en has done nothing more than inspire less than stellar murder mysteries like Saw or Hostel. These films lack any of the intelligence that Se7en possesses, and none of those films should be admired without watching Se7en first.