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Revision as of 14:14, 25 November 2004 by 80.77.200.197 (talk) (→Plot)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The movie Seven or Se7en (1995) is about a serial killer obsessed with the seven deadly sins. It was directed by David Fincher (his second movie) and written by Andrew Kevin Walker.
Seven stars Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman as the two detectives in charge of solving the crimes, Gwyneth Paltrow as the wife of Pitt's character, and Kevin Spacey as the killer.
Plot
In a rainy metropolis that is either New York or Philadelphia Detective Lt. William Somerset (Freeman) (possibly named for W. Somerset Maugham) is preparing to retire from police work after many grueling and unpleasant years of dealing with the amount of apathy bred within the grimy and forlorn city. In his last week, he is partnered with Detective David Mills (Pitt), a much younger and more naive detective who had specifically asked for a relocation from outside of the metropolis.
They meet one another at a crime scene in which an obese man who was force-fed, bound and tortured, lies dead. He has wires on ankles and wrists, and there is a bucket of vomit under the table. The pathologist later verifies that the man was force-fed repeatedly, then kicked in side. This caused his stomach to split and lead to internal haemorrhaging. The first bit of evidence that makes the two detectives believe they are after a cold and calculating killer is Somerset's discovery of three shopping receipts, indicating that the killer stopped force-feeding the victim when he ran out of food, and left the cockroach-infested filthy apartment to visit a supermarket.
After their superior (R. Lee Ermey) confronts the two in his office, Somerset aruges that Mills should be placed on a different assignment. However, not long after unravelling the gruesome murder of the prominent Jewish lawyerEli Gould, who died after excising a pound of flesh, one of the requests made by the Jewish character Shylock in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Written on the floor in Gould's blood is the word GREED. Somerset goes back and does some re-investigating, and finds GLUTTONY written in grease behind a refrigerator in the apartment of the first murder. He begins to suspect that the crimes are related, and confronts his superior to suggest the possibility of there being five more murders -- each patterned after the remaining five of the seven deadly sins.
Somerset and Mills investigate together, and all previous tension seems to be obliterated after Mills' wife Tracy invites the demoralised detective to their new house for dinner. That same evening, they find a set of fingerprints at the site of Gould's murder. The prints, cleverly hidden behind a painting which Mrs. Gould notices is upside down, belong to a known child molestor and drug dealer, but as the task force prepare to storm the offender's residence the following morning, Somerset is already sure that he is not the person they are looking for.
Proved right when the man is found tied to his bed, alive but suffering from severe muscular deterioration after having spent a year completely immobile, Somerset once again voices concern that they stand so little chance of catching this cold, calculating killer, who potographed the process of the tied man's deterioration and manipulated the evidence the detectives would collect to ensure that they discovered him exactly one year after his immobilisation. Besides the fact that the victim's brain is completely 'mush', his hand had been severed, which explains how the killer took it along with him to Eli Gould's murder in order to plant the fingerprints. The word SLOTH is written on the wall.
Reinforcing the noir sense of decadence director Filcher has planted all through this brilliant classic is Tracy's private revelation to Somerset that she is pregnant and isn't sure whether bringing a child into this world would be wise. Somerset tells her he was faced with the same decision at one point in life and chose the path of abortion. He has regretted it ever since, and tells her that if she chooses not to have it she should abstain from telling Mills.
With the investigation going nowhere, Somerset pays a contact in the FBI to print out the list of names on the government database of "flagged" library books. By feeding in a list of books that pertain to the seven deadly sins, they come up with a list of possible matches, one of which is Jonathan Doe. When they visit Doe's apartment, he opens fire at them from further down the hall and leads them on a chase through the apartment complex. During the pursuit, Mills is injured by Doe who escapes capture (This injury was added to the story after actor Brad Pitt injured himself attempting a stunt in the scene).
The inside of the man's apartment contains a darkroom and meticulously kept logs of the killer's random thoughts. Amongst the heap that suggests Jonathan Doe is an obsessive maniac, evidence of possible future victims arises. One of them is possibly a prostitute. There is also a receipt from a custom leather-goods fetish shop for an item that winds up being used in the murder of said prostitute; (LUST is written on the door outside the murder scene). Mills and Somerset later argue in a bar about the value of what they are doing, and Somerset is not convinced that staying on as a policeman would make any difference. Mills is.
A fifth victim turns up the next day after a phone call from John Doe to his own apartment. A model is found dead in her own bedroom. Doe cut off her nose to spite her face and offered her a choice between living with her disfigurement or suicide. By choosing suicide, she accedes to the sin of (PRIDE, which is written in blood on the headboard of the bed. When Mills and Somerset return to police headquarters, they are confronted by John Doe (Kevin Spacey), whose shirt is covered in blood.
Doe offers to plead guilty but only if they allow him to escort them to his 'final revelation'. On the way there, he alludes to the greatness of his achievement on several occasions, and seems particularly preoccupied with Detective Mills. He offers reasons as to why he has committed the heinous murders, and, in one of the film's most startling moments, explains that in order to arouse a heightened consciousness in the desentisised, amoral people of today, one cannot expect to tap people on the shoulder and have them listen, but rather, hit them with a sledge hammer, so as to attain thier full attention.
When they arrive on a deserted road far outside of city limits, a delivery truck pulls up. Inside is a delivery for Mills, which Somerset takes. Mills opens the box whilst struggling to ignore Jonathan Doe's comments. Inside, he finds the severed head of his wife Tracy. Here, Spacy is at his best as he recounts how he visited Tracy after Mills left for work and tried to play husband. Independantly wealthy Doe, envied the fruits of a common man's life, thus his sin is ENVY. Appalled and vengeful, Mills pulls out his gun and contemplates killing Doe. Somerset tries to stop him, arguing that Doe's revelations only stand if he dies for his sin of Envy, and if Mills kills him and thus becomes the embodiment of WRATH. "If you kill him, he wins," says Somerset. The distraught and emotional Mills, very much in line with the character Pitt has excellently played for us, is overcome by the tragedy of the death of his wife and their unborn baby, whom he did not know existed until Doe's ranting after he discovered the head, and shoots the killer in the head. Jonathan Doe drops dead, victorious.
In the final scene, Mills is naturally placed under arrest. Somerset is assured by the arresting officer that, when in prison, Mills will be taken care of. In a final voice-over, with sirens wailig in the background, Somerset says 'Ernest Hemingway once wrote; the world is a fine place, and worth fighting for. I agree with the second part."
Soundtrack
The opening credit music was a remix of the song Closer by Nine Inch Nails
See Also
External links
- Seven at IMDb
- Seven at All Movie Guide