Essay by Jason A. Hill
Seven – USA 1995
Director – David Fincher
Writer/ Screenplay – Andrew Kevin Walker
Seven is a crime thriller set in what appears to be urban Chicago. Two detectives on two different paths and at different stages in their careers track a methodical serial killer who leaves his victims with symbolic clues of the “seven deadly sins” to their murder.
Throughout the film you are given a bleak view of the world where it seems to never stop raining. Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a detective close to retirement and Mills, (Brad Pitt) a detective just starting his career pursue John Doe (Kevin Spacey), a psycho path serial killer who apparently bored with the ease and randomness of killing the old fashion way, needs to channel Dante, Milton and Chaucer to find inspiration for his killings. Very early on its clear that the detectives aren’t going to catch this killer. Otherwise the film would be called “Three” or “Four”. Nope we are going to see all seven deadly sins and the only question is why is John Doe doing this and how is he going to pull it off?
The tone of the film also takes an overly sympathetic view of the killer. Every victim is discovered with more of their death focusing on their “sin” or why rather than how leaving out any need for detective work. Not that super genius “Yoda” killer John Doe would leave any evidence behind anyway. And I can accept that the film is more about the killer than the cops chasing him so why then is his motive so elusive? Is he just a sick psychotic with an irresistible flare for irony, or is he a religious nut, hell bent on re-making the world in the biblical since.
Even up to this point the film can still work only, as with most films that leave me so unfulfilled, it’s ending is as meaningless as it is memorable. As John Doe leads his foolish police pursuers every which way but loose he completes his murder opus and turns him self in. But only does so in order to let the full impact of his deeds be felt by Detective Mills.
As I said before the film works on many levels, the dark landscape of the city is very stylized but believable. Technically the film stands with the best. The acting is subtle and effective. And if not for the ridiculousness of the main villain’s abilities and the story’s pointless conclusion, we have a fairly excellent thriller.
At one point in the film the detectives, desperate for a break in the case, illegally comp John Doe’s library reader list and find his apartment, illegally breaking and entering his premises. When John Doe arrives he out foxes the flatfoots and even has a moment with Mills, holding him at gunpoint but sparing him for a more gruesome outcome. This kind of bleakness was seen in Fincher’s previous film “Aliens 3” where we end the film with everyone important in that series dead and almost making “Aliens” (One of my favorite Sci Fi thrillers) completely pointless.
So what is the point of this story? The first place we can look is the closing exposition by Somerset who again quotes one of his favorite writers; “The world is a sick place but worth fighting for.” And he agrees with at least the first part of that quote. So the point of Seven is that the world is a sick place?
This seems too simplistic a conclusion for such a detailed and sophisticated thriller. Not only that but this is just not true. Sure the world is sometimes a sick place. But sometimes it’s a nurturing and allow me to channel Louie Armstrong, also a beautiful world. Although I think it takes a certain kind of wisdom and understanding to see it sometimes. It is this point of view that separates the protagonist from the antagonist in most stories for me. Any character may make the observation that death and destruction is a proper response to what they may see as a sick world. But it takes a truly higher mind to put that view aside and find some beauty in their sick world. It’s a shame Fincher only gives us the latter in Seven. Otherwise, we might have seen his killer in a more realistic light. Like most real serial killers we have heard of.
I left Seven feeling that both of the protagonists in this film were victims of their deficiencies, one too cavalier and ignorant, or maybe naive of the sick world and the other to unwilling to fully face the horror of this reality. The killer should have narrated this film. I think Seven had something going with the style and the characters but in the end it sacrificed poignancy for a punch line ending.