I’m not breaking any new ground by
saying that Se7en inspired Saw. It’s a loose
inspiration, with pieces wildly rearranged into a totally new
product, but the inspiration is still there. In fact, Seven
inspired virtually every movie about a serial killer being hunted by
the police that came after it in one way or another.
So then, why do I bring up Saw
specifically? Because in an odd way, Saw has overshadowed it.
Certainly, Se7en is a far better movie. However, Tobin
Bell’s performance as Jigsaw, in and of itself, is such an amazing
presentation of a visionary killer that he makes Kevin Spacey’s
John Doe seem quite quaint by comparison. As we see him, we think of
Jigsaw, and we imagine Jigsaw verbally breaking Doe down into nothing
more than a common thug, before jotting his name down as a possible
sixth alternate on his current list of people to be tested.
Looking back on it as a contemporary
viewer, this creates a natural problem for Se7en. When it
came out, it seemed to be the story of an intelligent killer whose
mind made a disturbing amount of sense. Now however, it’s a film
about a religious nut who killed a few people out of a sick obsession
with perfecting the world. In fact, the world of Se7en mostly
seems too functional to really need a visionary killer to wake it up.
At least when compared to the world of Saw, in which at least
half a dozen murderers, rapists and other assorted low-lifes can
easily be scooped up for “testing” in every film. That throws a
monkey-wrench into Se7en, as we no longer feel that what we’re
watching is all that important.
Se7en revolves around Detectives
Mills (Brad Pitt) and Somerset (Morgan Freeman), hunting a killer who
tortures and/or murders people who he views as “sinful.” He
bases his murders on the Seven Deadly Sins, force feeding a fat
person to death, tying a slothful individual to a cot for a full year
while keeping him alive and so forth. The first two acts of the
movie revolve mostly around Somerset and Mills’ interactions, with
Mills as the hot-headed young cop with a massive streak of
overconfidence, and Somerset as the old, jaded mentor cop.
Pitt and Freeman have excellent
chemistry and are fundamentally the reason the movie works. It has a
definite pre-9/11 feel, with a great deal of concern shown for the
difficulty of tracking a suspect who has a right to privacy.
However, this is never presented as something morally wrong, simply
as a fact of life that police are expected to deal with. This sets
it up as something of an unintentional period piece, reflecting two
cops navigating the values of the 90s.
The most bizarre thing about the
relationship is Mills’ characterization, which breaks the standard
stereotype we initially expect. He’s a Cowboy Cop rule breaker,
but not the cynic of the pair. Rather, Somerset is the by-the-book
cop, mainly because he’s too cynical to believe that anything he
does could ever make a serious difference in the world. Mills is the
renegade because he believes that he can achieve some good by going
above and beyond.
Only one scene in this particular film
actually gave me chills, and it wasn’t one of the ones most people
cite. Most people find either Gluttony or Sloth to be particularly
frightening kills (...or, in the case of Sloth, not-kill). The Pride
victim however had a very psychological nature to her punishment that
made me feel deeply uncomfortable. Her face was disfigured, and she
had a phone glued to one hand and a bottle of pills glued to the
other. She was given the choice between either calling for help and
showing her new face to the world, or ending her life, and she chose
the latter.
John Doe himself is finally introduced
in the last act, turning himself in to the police. Based on my
previous comments, I’ve probably given the impression that I
dislike Spacey’s performance. That isn’t true, I merely feel
that he can’t compete with Tobin Bell. He does have a creepy vibe,
even if we’re now jaded to the idea of a creepy serial killer who
punishes people for their “sins,” and gives self-aggrandizing
speeches to the police.
The ending of the movie is now well
known. Doe reveals that he killed Mills’ wife in an act of Envy,
causing Mills to kill him in an act of Wrath. Whether or not this
represents Doe breaking his pattern is a matter of internet debate,
which I can’t easily settle here. (I’d need a definitive answer
to whether the Sloth victim actually died and whether the Lust victim
was the prostitute or her John to determine what the precise the
pattern of the murders were).
The beats of this movie are perfectly
paced. I attribute that largely to the fact that this is a David
Fincher film. Dialogue flows together and scenes transition as
smoothly as butter. The movie’s early dialogue scenes are never
boring, the confrontations are never rushed, and the visuals are
never uninteresting.
I highly recommend this movie. Even if
it doesn’t scare you, it’s well-worth it to see Brad Pitt and
Morgan Freeman together, with Kevin Spacey as a cherry on top.
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