A movie like Se7en, or just Seven as it’s sometimes shown, is quite possibly one of the most profound, unusually disturbing but provocative movies Hollywood has churned out in his history. The fact that it contains a rising heartthrob like Brad Pitt alongside a revered actor like Morgan Freeman and is so dark and unsettling it makes everything repulsive, it should have been a huge flop. It was released through New Line Cinema when the studio was attempting to break into more mainstream movies after being known for producing schlock and horror. It would be the type of movie A24 would make today but it wouldn’t work as well.
The cheesy and campy Mortal Kombat had only been released a month earlier. And the difference between that movie and this one, you’d think they were released years if not a decade apart. Se7en isn’t a horror movie but I wouldn’t call it a pscyhological thriller. It’s not a police procedural either, but making the two main characters police detectives is pertinent to the plot and overall themes. It’s really a look at what got us here up until 1995 and what was in store for us in our present day.
The movie is set in an unidentified major city where crime is out of control. Most of the neighborhoods are decaying or in disarray. The city seems to be suffering a huge weather front dumping rain everywhere. Coming back from seeing it this weekend in 1995, one of my friends compared it to a Batman story. The city looks like it’s Gotham City, dirty, corrupt and depressing. It’s probably no surprise the movie was released a week after Bob Kane and Bill Finger invented the Caped Crusader.
Where the city is located is irrelevant, it’s supposed to represent every American city during this area in which crime was out of control following the crack epidemic and failure or Reagonomics of the 1980s. There’s a mention of that David Mills (Pitt) and his wife, Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow) are from “upstate” which gives hints they’re in New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, etc. But the third act of the movie takes place mostly in a deserted desolate region, which suggests it could even be St. Louis.
It doesn’t really matter. The city is failing apart and Det. William Somerset (Freeman) has grown tired of living there and plans to buy a house somewhere else where he can retire in seven days when he meets his replacement, Mills. The younger detective represents the idealism many others young police officers have that they can actually make a difference. But Somerset, in his middle-age 50s, sees that’s not possible anymore. He’s let his job rule his life and ruin whatever chances he had of starting a family. I think he even sees his life as a failure as his career in law enforcement was futile as he wanted to change but it’s mentioned he was unable to close many previous cases.
The following will contain spoilers so if you haven’t seen this movie, you might consider pausing reading until you see it. Mills and Somerset are assigned to investigate the mysterious death of a morbidly obese man (Bob Mack) who has been found with his hands and feet bound sitting at a kitchen table with his face in a bowl of spaghetti. The man lives in a decrepit dwelling that looks like a visit from the health board will condemn it immediately. There are cockroaches crawling everywhere. From the start, Mills and Somerset are polar opposites. Somerset is more quite and observing of the scene while Mills is too boistrous and even questioning while the uniformed officers didn’t check on the victim better to see if he was alive.
Their captain played by R. Lee Ermey leaves the case assigned to Somerset while he feels Mills can work on another assignment to get his feet more wet. The coroner states the obese man was more or less forced to eat with a possible gun pressed against his head judging by bruising. He ate until he basically died from the effort and his stomach literally burst open. Somerset feels its the beginning of something but his captain feels it was more persona between the victim and killer. In a way, he’s right.
The next day, a high-power private attorney Eli Gould (Gene Borkan) is found dead in his high-rise office. Mills is heading up the investigation much to the chagrin of the other officers who feel he’s inexperienced. Gould’s body was found with the side of his abdominal body fat cut off. On the floor, the word “GREED” is written in blood. Somerset hears this and returns to the home of the obese man after given small slivers of metal that were fed to the obese man. He pulls back the refrigerator and sees the word “GLUTTONY” written in grease on the wall. There’s a writing taped to the wall from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, “Long is the way and hard that out of hell leads up to Hell.”
Somerset and Mills are investigating the same killer. But they are stumped. Somerset feels that since the killer is quoting Milton, he may be educated and goes to the library to do some research leaving some recommendations to Mills who can’t really comprehend the literary works but does his best. When collaborating, Mills says there is a picture of Gould’s wife with circles around her eyes in blood. Upon questioning a very distraught widow, she says a painting is on his office hall incorrectly.
They go to his office and on a hunch, Somerset tests for fingerprints only to discover there are on the way spelling out “HELP ME.” The fingerprints lead to a convicted pedophile Victor Allen (Michael Reid MacKay) who was represented by Gould. The captain and the SWAT commander, California (John C. McGinley), are gung-ho about busting him and go to his last known address guns ready. But they all find Victor lying in bed barely alive, emaciated and disoriented. “SLOTH” is written on the wall above his bed.
Unfortunately, Allen can’t help Mills and Somerset much because doctors say he’s so close to death he can’t respond. On a hunch, Somerset decides to contact a friend with the FBI (Mark Boone Junior) who can look into locals who may have checked out questionable reading material. This leads them to the address of John Doe (Kevin Spacey) who fires on Mills and Somerset in the hallway. But through a foot chase, they’re not able to apprehend him and Mills gets injured while chasing him through the rain soaked neighborhood.
In real life, Pitt suffered an injury to the tendons in his left hand while performing a stunt, he slipped and rammed his arm through a glass window. Rather than waiting until it healed and filming around, they incorporated it into the plot. This is the right move because it shows how more weak Mills is than he portrays himself. This comes into use later in the movie. He may be present himself as a tough guy and wears a leather jacket as opposed to Somersets more somber trenchcoat but he’s an easily broken man.
By fudging their way into John Doe’s apartment, they discover that they interacted with him the day earlier at the building where Victor Allen lived when he presented himself as a photojournalist taking pictures of Mills and the scene. Why would John Doe do this? I think it’s because it gives him joy. Doe thinks he’s being commanded by God to rid the world of the sinners, but I think in his twisted mind he sees it as his duty. I’m reminded of the young men in The Fisher King who viciously attack homeless people saying, “We’re tired of seeing you.” Doe isn’t like the Bill Paxton character in Frailty who views his killing of “demons” as an unneccessary chore he must complete such as mowing the grass on a hot, humid summer day or shoveling the walk on a cold frigid morning.
This is what makes Somerset, Doe and Mills the same but also different. They all see themselves as enforcers. However, Somerset and Doe have become disillussioned with the world around them but they both had different end goals. Somerset wants to leave it behind him possibly out of some guilt that he couldn’t prevent it as cop. That’s why he butts heads with Mills on so many things. He sees the innocents and gullibleness he once had which Mills easily calls him out on when they first meet, which is one of the rarest moments in the movie where Somerset lets his guard down.
Whereas Somerset is set on leaving the city for a more relaxed suburban life, Doe has the money and means to leave as police find a large amount of cash in his apartment. Yet, he chooses not to. Doe is one of these people who feels he must go head-first into a situation that he can easily avoid. Imagine Kyle Rittenhouse going to Kenosha, Wisc. Or he’s like the people during the NYC Draft Rights of 1863, the Tulsa Race Massacre or Rosewood, Fla. Massacre who were no more than excited to get the opportunity to kill and harm people they viewed as beneath them. Somerset finds composition notebooks in Doe’s apartments that contain his ramblings and viewpoints and it shows that he has become angry at the world and almost everyone in it.
In a very creative role of casting, all of the victims seem to be white/caucasian. I’m sure this was done to avoid any possible criticism of the black stereotype of people as drug addicts, prostitutes or obese. Along with Freeman, Richard Roundtree plays the local district attorney Talbot in a few scenes and other uniformed police officers and SWAT officers are portrayed by black actors. This goes along with the notion that serial killers, which Doe is, hunt in their same race.
What Doe does next gives more insight to his madness as he has commissioned a bladed strap-on to be made. He has targeted a prostitute and forces a john (Leland Orser) at gunpoint to kill her by having sex knowing the blade will cause her to bleed quickly and die. Director David Fincher and the actors make this scene a lot more gruesome in nature than it would have been shown in say a Hostel or Saw movie. From the pause Mills gets as he first sees the picture of the strap-on to Orser’s crazed reaction as he sits in an interview woman make it more unsettling than it could be shown with special effects and gore.
Orser reportedly stayed awake for two or three days to look unwell and took short breaths before filming to cause himself to hyperventilate while recalling Doe putting a gun in his mouth while he performed the murder. In many ways, this is a double-murder because it could be that Doe’s target is the john who wants the lust that he visits a grungy massage parlor. The parlor is located underground with loud heavy metal music blaring giving the appearance that Mills and Somerset are descending into Hell as they approach the crime scene.
But I also think Doe has an aversion to women because his murders committed on woman are more brutal and disgusting. He calls her “the disease-spreading whore” which implies he’s killing whatever STDs she might have. He carves “LUST” on the door in an angry manner. And it’s possible he views the victim (Jennifer “Cat” Mueller) as a representation of all women. My theory is Doe was wronged by a woman that was his catalyst to commit the murders by making him extremely depressed and angry. Maybe she cheated on him. Maybe he was married and went through a bitter divorce. Or he had a bad upbringing which taught him to hate all women.
Either, Doe’s animosity toward women is on full display in this morning. And it’s a perfect example of InCel mentality and misogyny in America. One might not show sympathy toward a drug-addicted pedophile or the crooked attorney who defended him. Even Mills calls the Glutton Victim a “fat fuck.” By his targeting of the Lust victim, Doe has also made us re-examine our views on prostitutes or just women who dress scantily. Our society turns them into whores or skanks just by sight only. But is Mills any different with his profane mouth and leather coat? It’s also intended that Somerset never swears much. This might explain why a scene was cut when he drops the F-bomb while talking to Mills.
Does’ murder of the Pride Victim (Heidi Schanz) is even more sadistic as he cuts up her face first but bandages it, giving her two options – call 911 or take pills to overdose and die. Doe sees the woman as ugly on the inside but she is a product of society then and now. He criticizes the Gluttony Victim for being obese but we would also be disgusted by a woman with multiple scars on her face. We live in a world where “beautifying” cremes and gels are a billionaire-dollar business. Also the trauma of having someone viciously attack you would make your judgment skewed.
Doe has gone off the rails. I don’t know what he had in mind before Mills and Somerset came to his apartment, but it shows his desperation when his plan is foiled. In the end, he really shows that he is a true monster by targeting Tracy. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!! Aside from a sequence where Tracy makes dinner for Mills and Somerset so they can have a moment of tranquility and peace, little is shown of her in the movie. There’s a scene where she contacts Somerset for his advice because she’s pregnant and she doesn’t know if she wants to bring a child up in the city.
Doe kills Tracy and decapitates her, supposedly putting her head in a box that is to be delivered by a parcel driver out in the desert area. I’ve hard rumors that it was originally supposed to be the fetus but that was deemed too much. Either way, it removes any sympathy one might have for Doe because by his own ideology, he targeted an “innocent” person. Doe wants Mills to kill him because he would be the Envy victim and Mills would be the Wrath victim as his live is over figuratively speaking.
But before this scene, we get more sense of Doe’s smugness. Doe turns himself in but says he will sign a full confession if Mills and Somerset drive him to the desolate area. California and other SWAT provide air support as they fly in a helicopter following the squad car as it drives out of town as the rain has ended and the sun is now out. Somerset notes on the drive that Doe is getting some pleasure out of what he is doing, because he is. Doe tries to play it off that none of the victims were innocent as Mills suggested because of their vices and actions. But Doe obviously did it for his own amusement and joy.
And Somerset sees through all this. That’s why he allows Mills to question Doe mocking him and getting angry. Somerset, himself, is happy Mills is saying this and feels that given what has happened, it’s earned. Doe fired on Mills and Somerset. There are moments where Somerset appears to be smiling or amused by how Mills is cutting Doe down. You hear stories about how the U.S. troops who arrived at Dachau killed many of the German soldiers afterwards without any consequences. (This was dramatized in Shutter Island). You can only push people so much before they push back and what happens is warranted in your own warped mind.
What Doe did to everyone was wrong. The U.S. troops killing Germans who may not have known about the events was wrong. But it’s in our human nature to want revenge and our own form of justice. Doe says Mills would like to be alone with him in a room without windows which Mills says he’s offended by but given the possibility, Mills would jump at it. That’s why in the end, Doe knows Mills will kill him. Somerset would be too smart to let Doe win like that. And I’m glad a deus ex machina ending was never used where Somerset shoots Doe to prevent Mills from doing it, even though I think secretly, Somerset might have wanted to.
But Somerset admits he’s never had to use his service weapon much. And in a scene where he fires a warning shot as the delivery driver approaches, you can tell his inexperience as he seems reluctant to fire the shot. Later when California observes through binoculars Mills shoot Doe in cold blood, he freaks out. Earlier in the movie, he as well as the rest of the SWAT have their shotguns and rifles drawn reading to fire. But upon seeing another officer shoot someone, the horror is too much on him.
And in the end, Mills has killed the bad guy but at what cost. He has no wife and no child. He will probably lose his job if not serve time. But he got his vengeance. And while most movies like Se7en end with the bad guy getting shot or killed, it shows how damaging it can really be. But is killing Doe while he was on his knees with his hands in cuffs seen as cruel and inhumane compared to what Doe did? I don’t think a jury would convict Mills. And as the police captain assures Somerset about Mills “We’ll take care of him” indicates they might cover it up to make it look justified. And Somerset says “Whatever he needs” indicating he is willing to lie to protect Mills telling him he’ll be “around.”
The tragedy of the ending is that Somerset sees this as a justification for retiring and walking away from law enforcement. Doe’s lawyer said that he will plead insanity and there’s some hint that it’s possible in Somerset’s reaction upon hearing it. But no one is going to worry about a serial killer, especially someone who killed a pregnant woman, getting shot multiple time “while resisting.”
It’s the antithesis of Falling Down in which Michael Douglas played a man like John Doe who cracked and turned violent. But as people have romanticizied and hoisted Douglas’ Bill Foster, aka D-Fens, up as a working class hero. Doe is an example of why we don’t act on on our impulses. It’s one thing to get angry about a grocer charging too much than what you think you should pay or a fast-food restaurant unable to change their system for one customer. But Doe is angry he could very easily have avoided.
We see this more nowadays during the digital age where people go nuts over a social media post and bully and even threaten violence. And thanks to Reagan’s myth of the “Welfare Queen,” white Americans like Doe became angry at people of another demographic they hardly interacted with. But the Cold War was over in the 1990s and America and the world was changing. The new millenium was approaching and the rise of the Christian right led to the zealots, like Doe, coming out and getting more attention. Doe is no different than anti-abortionists who bombed clinics and shot at healthcare workers.
The Christrian right got its hooks into politicis where it began to bully legislators in creating a more biased form of governmen where if we do things a certain way, it’ll be “easier.” This is referenced to something Mills and Somerset discuss where the older detective says “It’s easier to hit a child than it is to raise it.” We live in a society that wants swift, violent consequences. If a child spills their milk, they face the possibility of being punished rather than a parent just telling the child accidents happen. We’re not willing to take the time we need to do things the right way. We just want to get them over and done.
If the movie was made today, Doe would be targeting people in the LGBTQIA community, Muslims, Asian-Americans, or liberals/Democrats. John Doe is a representation of the Conservative Christian Alpha males that emerged in the second half of the 20th Century. They were born or raised during the Jim Crow era and were baptized by a fire of hatred from the Civil Rights era. They believed they were superior and they wanted to keep that superiority. But Doe is weak like Mills, who thinks he’s also an Alpha Male.
Se7en isn’t a crime thriller. It’s more or less a commentary on the world at the time and a warning of things that came since 1995. This was only Fincher’s second movie after he had a disastrous experience on the set of Alien 3. He does a good job here at making us feel uneasy especially when a lot is left to our imaginations. Reportedly when Andrew Kevin Walker submitted his script to studios and production companies, one person read it and replied he “needed help.” Walker thought it meant writing help but it was referring to mental help.
And that might be why New Line felt the movie might bomb. Test audiences weren’t the best. Pitt had lopped off his Jesus locks and beard for a scruffy-rough former high school jock look. Teen girls weren’t going to see a horror movie. But it was a success. Produced on a budget of $34 million, it made over $327 million worldwide, got good reviews, and ushered in many poor imitators that failed to see what Fincher and the crew had done. It’s one of the most distrubing, disgusting, demented movies ever produced. And I mean that as a compliment.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 