Seven was directed by David Fincher, who is a relatively young director (he was born in 1963). He consciously avoids publicity as he does not enjoy fame and prestige. He grew up in Marin County, California. At the age of eighteen, he went to work with George Lucas for four years. After that he shot several television commercials and also directed music videos for acknowledged artists such as Aerosmith, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Sting and the Rolling Stones. His first movie was "Alien 3", a film he made in 1991 and which was a commercial disaster. This might be because David Fincher does not approach film-making in a traditional or Hollywoodian way and because the film moved dramatically away from the style of the previous movies, angering fans of the series. Then, in 1995, he directed "Seven". After which he made a thriller called "The Game" in 1997, which starred Michael Douglas in the leading role. In 1999, he directed "Fight-Club", which, as Seven, starred Brad Pitt and became a blockbuster.
When it was released in September 1995, Seven went straight to the first place at the American box-office and stayed there for five weeks. After nine weeks, it was still in the top ten. The film was a blockbuster in Europe as well. It was nominated and awarded in the presentations of Academy Awards and British Awards.
The story was written by Andrew Kevin Walker and the film was produced by Arnold Kopelson.
"Seven" is a dark movie, one of these film noir where it's constantly raining. It seems that in the nameless city where the story is set, you can only get a 10-watt light bulb, when the power works at all. Although the film is most probably set in the present time, it could as well be in the forties considering the dark furniture and depressing atmosphere.
In this film, Detective Somerset, a man who lives a bachelor's life in a very neat and clean apartment, meets Detective Mills, a former policeman recently made detective. They first appear mismatched : thoughtful Somerset quickly gets annoyed with Mills' impulsive behavior.
Their first case together is an obese man who was tied to his chair with barbed wire and forced to eat himself to death.
On the following day, a District Attorney is found murdered in his office. GREED was written on the floor with blood letters. The killer made him cut off one pound of flesh from his body.
When Somerset goes back to the place where the first case was discovered, he finds the word GLUTTONY written in grease behind the refrigerator. These two words, Gluttony and Greed, remind him of the Seven Deadly Sins, which are Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Pride, Lust and Envy. He forecasts 5 more deaths.
On the Wednesday, Mills' wife Tracy invites Somerset to dinner. This evening helps Mills and Somerset to get along better.
Then comes Sloth. A man was tied to his bed for one year and barely kept alive. SLOTH was written above his head. He looks dead; however, he suddenly coughs, which startles everyone, the spectator included.
Getting some help from a man working for the Bureau, Mills and Somerset find some information about the killer. His name, or rather the name he uses, is John Doe, which is the American name for a nameless person, or someone who cannot be identified. This name makes him anonymous, perhaps suggesting that he is just a normal person, showing the sins that everyone has in them to some degree. When they go to his place, he arrives and shoots at them. They run after him but he finally manages to have his gun on Mills' temple. However, he decides to spare him. In the run, Brad Pitt has broken his wrist in the movie as well as in real life.
After that, Mills and Somerset search his apartment. They find lots of religious symbols, like a huge red cross above his bed, along with lots of pills and some weapons. He has filled about 2,000 notebooks of 250 pages each with his small and obsessive handwriting. He has also taken a lot of pictures, including some of Mills. Yet, they can't find any fingerprints.
On the Saturday, another victim is found. She was a prostitute. The killer had a leather maker construct a "strap-on" with a huge blade attached to it and he made a man wear it during sex with the whore. LUST was carved on the door.
On the following day, a beautiful girl was disfigured and then given a choice : either she could call for help or she could put an end to her misery. PRIDE was written above her head, along with a picture of her. She is so concerned about her outward appearance, she would consider killing herself rather than being disfigured.
After that, John Doe turns himself in. The police find out that he has cut off the skin of his fingertips, which is why they couldn't find any prints. He wants to take Mills and Somerset to the two remaining bodies. While they are riding the car, John Doe explains why he killed those people. Unlike the rest of the movie, there is a bright sun shining in that part. A few moments after they have arrived, a delivery van appears. It is a package for Mills. Somerset opens the box and is shocked. Meanwhile, John Doe is telling Mills how he envies him and his normal life. He says that he visited Mills' home that morning and tried to play the husband, but it didn't work out, so he took a souvenir : Tracy's head. He reveals Tracy's pregnancy to Mills. Somerset tries to stop him, but after much hesitation, Mills shoots Doe in the head. John Doe envied Mills' life, and he was killed for his sin. Mills was wrathful to Doe because he had killed his wife, now his life is destroyed. At best he will go to jail for most of his life, but he might also be sentenced to the capital punishment.
This well-respected detective is going to be stepping down to continue life as a civilian. He is a disenchanted veteran, a burnt-out policeman seven days from retirement. He is a meticulous, patient and thoughtful man who has seen too much. He now lives a bachelor's life, but as he reveals to Tracy and David Mills at dinner, he once had a relationship that was close to a marriage. When he meets Tracy in a diner, he confides her that his lover once got pregnant, but he was afraid to raise a child in this world, so he asked her to end the pregnancy.
In the beginning of the film, he goes to sleep using a metronome to drown the noises of the city. But towards the end, when the investigation doesn't seem to lead them anywhere, he suddenly throws the metronome across the room. The metronome is symbolic of the passing of time, and the intrusion in his life, with the loud ticks passing off every second, as they waste away.
He feels he's been in this city for too long, and wants to get away. Although he hates the modern world, and thinks it a decadent and terrible place, he still believes it is worth fighting against the seemingly endless tide of bad, to bring good into it.
When working with Mills about the murders, he is very pessimistic about the use of what they are doing, but he does it efficiently anyway. His work is very methodological. Mills wonders where they are heading, and Somerset answers they are collecting clues in case they are ever needed in court. Yet, he doesn't want to leave something unfinished and asks at the beginning to be discharged of the case.
The opening scene of the movie shows Somerset's morning routine and the last words of the film are his : "Ernest Hemingway once wrote : 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part. " Consequently, we feel that the story is told through his viewpoint. Along with his thoughtful and intelligent character, that helps us identify with him.
He is a young policeman who was recently made detective and will be the replacement for Somerset. He is very talkative and can't keep quiet, even when Somerset asks him to. Moreover, he uses harsh language. In the beginning of the movie, Mills and Somerset try to gain power over each other. Mills is impulsive and impatient compared to Somerset's meticulous and calculated nature. Almost the tortoise and the hare in their approach to life, Somerset wants to work through it slowly, investigating and understanding the many different aspects of the case, whereas Mills wants to simply look for the killer.
At the beginning, he is eager to start working. Then, he shows that he can't stand waiting but instead would like some action to get things done. However, when one evening Mills and Somerset are working separately, Mills doesn't get anywhere whereas Somerset does some research for him in the library. He is very anxious to do things well and quickly; thus, he is not able to get the investigation going. He sees every murder as solvable and every killer as crazy. Actually, he sees nothing, he is every man.
Mills wants to be acknowledged as a male, and as he strives for this 'ideal masculinity', he neglects his wife and the unborn baby he is not aware of. He is doing his job too well, at the expense of his family.
When Somerset knows a lot about the Seven Deadly Sins and has read Dante, Chaucer and Milton, he tries to catch up by reading the Cliff Notes versions. He proves his lack of knowledge by pronouncing the marquis de Sharday, like the singer Sade.
In the film, Mills represents a 'normal' man. He is full of prejudice. For instance, he sees the killer as a lunatic, a crazy man that dances in his grandmother's panties and rubs himself in peanut butter.
Moreover, he does not take a liking to feminine methods of chasing the killer. When knocking on John Doe's door, he says "Charlie's fucking Angels", which refers to the TV-series Charlie's Angels (1976-1981), in which three women detectives worked for their mysterious employer Charlie.
Mills' wife is a saint of domesticity right out of John Ford. She is submissive, fragile, delicate and lives in the shadow of her husband. She used to be a teacher but gave it up so that Mills was able to get the job he wants. She stands by him when he decides to move to this gloomy city. She wants to get to know people, therefore, she invites Somerset to dinner one evening. When the two men arrive, she introduces Mills and Somerset to each other by their first names. Though this might sound somehow cheeky, it shows that she wants her husband to get on well with Somerset. As Mills leaves the room to see the 'kids' (two great Danes), Somerset and Tracy are on their own, and they can talk together. During dinner, they laugh together about Somerset's comment that their home is 'vibrating' because they live near a subway line, something that Mills does not find funny. As the movie goes, she and Somerset get closer. One day she needs someone to talk to so she asks Somerset to meet her in a diner for breakfast. They share their views about things that are meaningful for both of them : life, children, failure of the family, the suffocating city and work, issues that neither of them are able to bring out with Mills. She tells Somerset that she is pregnant, something that Mills doesn't know about yet.
Tracy is a victim and she is not very present in person in the movie, but her character is very important to the story. Gwyneth Paltrow plays a great role, but mostly off-screen.
The serial killer murdered one person for each of the Seven Deadly Sins, choosing his method depending on which sin he was murdering for. He is amazingly calm and intelligent, two facts that connect him with Somerset. As his intelligence is above average, he has quite a good knowledge of literature : he has extensive knowledge of the Bible, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante's Divine Comedy and Inferno for instance to prepare his slayings.
Somerset and 'John Doe' are both extremely similar in many respects, both sick of the decadence and decay in the world, both extremely meticulous and at times obsessive. They are the good and evil in the world, one is destroying the evil, the other in preserving the good. So in many ways they are both chasing the same goals.
The police couldn't find any fingerprints, even in his home, for he used a razor to cut the skin from his fingers. He posed as a press photographer in order to get into a crime scene. Later, he mentioned how easy it was for a "member of the press" to purchase information about Mills from the local precinct. Although he may never have been a press photographer, it is clear from the makeshift darkroom in his apartment that he is familiar with the workings of this profession.
Jonathan Doe was shot and killed by Detective Mills, an event that was planned by Doe himself as a method to die of his own sin of envy without having to commit suicide, which his Catholic beliefs disallowed.
The Seven Deadly Sins, which are Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Lust, Pride, Envy and Wrath, are all excesses of drives that are in balance basically good. The opposite of each sin is also a sin, which means the virtue would be somewhere in the middle.
In the movie, Mills makes a statement that Pride comes first, not Gluttony in Dante. Indeed, here is a plan of the earthly paradise :
-------------------------------------------- | THE EARTHLY PARADISE | |------------------------------------- /\ | | / \ | | VII The Lustful /____\| | / | | 7 VI The Gluttonous /_______| | TERRACES / | | OF V The Avaricious / | | PURGATION and Prodigal /__________| | / | | / | | / | | IV The Slothful /______________| | / | | / | | / | | III The Wrathful /__________________| | / | | II The Envious /____________________| | / | | I The Proud /______________________| | / | | / | | / THE ISLAND | | / | | / OF PURGATORY | | / | |____________/_____________________________|
Pride is the opposite of self-abnegation, which is also a sin. The balance is self-respect, appropriate regard for one's own inherent worth and dignity. In the movie, a beautiful girl was disfigured and Doe had glued to one of her hands a telephone, to the other sleeping pills. That meant she was given a choice : either she could call for help and she would live, but she wouldn't be beautiful, or she could put an end to her misery. 'John Doe' describes her as 'a woman, so ugly on the inside that she couldn't barely go on living if she wasn't beautiful on the outside'.
Greed is inordinate desire. The opposite would be lack of all desire or anhedonia which accompanies deep depression and withdrawal from life. The balance is the desire to accomplish, the will to do, ambition. In 'Seven', a lawyer was killed in his office and forced to cut a pound of flesh from his body. GREED was written is blood letters on the floor across the room. There was blood around the eyes of his wife on a picture, and behind a painting, the police found written in fingerprints : HELP ME. The fingerprints were Victor's, who is the victim of Sloth. The killer tells Mills and Somerset about this murder : "You both must have been secretly thanking me for that one. This is a man who dedicated his life to making money by lying with every breath that he could muster, to keeping murders and rapists on the street".
Lust is unrestrained, intemperate, irrational, sexual desire or craving. The opposite would be catatonic unresponsiveness. In balance, lust is the longing for intimate communion, the desire for connection and closeness in mutual care and valuing. The lust victim was a whore. The killer made a man wear a blade while having sexual intercourse with her. LUST was carved on the door. To the killer, she was a 'disease-spreading whore'.
Envy is desire and admiration turned sour. In its positive side or balance, envy becomes admiration and appreciation. John Doe envied Mills' normal life, as he told him several times and he was killed by Mills. He had planned this as he couldn't commit suicide, it is not allowed by the Catholic church.
Gluttony is ingesting an excess of any substance, over-indulgence, making a pig of oneself or becoming high or intoxicated. In balance gluttony is good appetite, which is essential for the affirmation and living of life. The gluttony victim was the first that was found by the police. He was an obese man who was force-fed to death tied to his chair with barbed wire. The word GLUTTONY was written in grease behind the refrigerator. Behind the same refrigerator was a piece of paper on which was written : "Long is the way and hard that out of hell leads up to light". This is a quote from Milton's Paradise Lost. 'John Doe' describes this man to the detectives as "an obese man, a disgusting man who could barely stand up. A man, if you saw him on the street, you pointed to your friends so that they could join you in mocking him. A man if you saw him while you were eating, you wouldn't be able to finish your meal".
Wrath : the opposite would be apathy. In balance anger is protective, a protective device of the self to guard what one loves. Mills was wrathful at John Doe because he had killed Tracy. He shot him, and now his life is destroyed. He has no family anymore, no job either and at best he will spend the rest of his life in jail. Or he might be sentenced to the death penalty.
Sloth in its original meaning is akin to despair. Sloth is to look upon the wonder and goodness of creation and turn our backs. Sloth is a rejection of the joy and goodness of life. A homosexual drug-dealer was tied to his bed and barely fed for one year. The killer took samples from his body. He took one picture every week to show his decay. SLOTH was written above his head. Actually, when they find him, he isn't dead yet, but he isn't much alive either.
A lot of stereotypes are used in this film. For instance, the first time Tracy and Somerset meets, he mentions that David and her were high-school sweethearts. She says : "I knew on our first date that this was the guy I was going to marry." She is a good wife, lost in this big city that is new to her. It seems that, as she is a woman, she can't find her place by herself. Mills is good-looking (actually he's cute but not handsome), and was the captain of the football team in college. He is confused that his wife wants to get to know people. He wants to act and can't stand waiting without doing anything, which is a typical male behavior. He can't think by himself and finds solace in prejudice. For example, he wants to think the killer as crazy, it makes him more comfortable.
Somerset is one week from retirement when he gets one of the toughest case possible, which is only possible in a movie.
Rain is associated with death. As matter of fact, it is raining most of the time in the film.
In 'Seven', the two main characters, Mills and Somerset, are male. The serial killer is a man. Within the police, most people are male. Even among passers-by there are more men than women. The main female character is Tracy Mills, who isn't given much time on the screen even though her role is quite important to the story. The other female characters are a police officer who Mills talks to in a quite contemptuous voice, and a prostitute who is paid to make a false report to cover up the problems caused by Mills. Among journalists, there are some women too.
The female sinners are a prostitute and a too proud girl. These two women were sinner because of male behavior towards them : the whore made a living out of males' fancies, and the beautiful girl was proud of herself because of the look of men. Although they were certainly not completely innocent, their sins were related to men's behavior.
Although most characters are male, there is no doubt as to the heterosexuality of every man. This might be because there are a few hints about homophobia throughout the story.
Mills wants to show without a doubt that he is an heterosexual man. When sitting in a diner with Somerset, he asks him to sit across so that people don't think they're dating. This idea that people would think he's homosexual makes him pretty uncomfortable.
Like Mills, homosexuals make John Doe ill-at-ease. When he is with the two detectives in the car near the end of the movie, he says he doesn't pity the people he has killed anymore than he mourns the thousands that died in Sodom and Gomorrah. According to the Bible, Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities legendary for their "sexual perversion", which refers to homosexuality. They were annihilated by God in a cataclysm of "brimstone and fire".
After dinner together at the Mills' apartment, Mills and Somerset can start building up a friendly and, in a way, "secure" relationship, that is to say they are now sure that none of them is homosexual : Mills is married and Somerset has confided being close to getting married once. From that point, they get along better, and when, at the end of the film Mills is in trouble Somerset promises 'to be around' although he wanted to get away from this city.
The story of Se7en is good, it makes a difference from the other stories of most Hollywoodian movies. Though it is frightening, it is not conventional.
The cast is brilliant : Brad Pitt plays the role of Mills perfectly, Morgan Freeman's voice is great for Somerset, and Kevin Spacey is awesome as always.
There are some spectacular visuals, for instance a few fleshy details of the murders, which might make this film somehow tough for sensitive people, but it is anyway great visual art.
Some of the dialogues are quite poetic, especially some written for Morgan Freeman. For instance, when Tracy asks him why he is not married, he replies : "Anyone who spends a significant amount of time with me finds me disagreeable".
The film is extremely symbolic, with lots of references to religion, Christianity and others.
Seven is not about the murders of the chase, but about all that is bleak and disturbing in modern life, about moral decay, about those things that go bump in the night of the soul.
If you want to know more bout the Seven Deadly Sins, you can have a look at The Rev. Barbara Carlson's sermon of August 22, 1999 .
A very good study about Masculinity and Se7en can be downloaded here.
If you want the script of the movie, click here.
Here is a new site about Se7en that looks really nice, in particular there are some stills and wallpapers. The trailer is there too.