For this new week of the Film League, the theme is a film that has blown my mind. Most of them will do some science fiction review, in my case, I hallucinated with a film with a very earthly theme: Seven by David Fincher (1995)
What ridiculous puppets we are and how vulgar is the stage on which we dance.... Jhon Doe
I was totally freaked out by this film. Films about serial killers, which deal with the dark side of human beings, are subjects that have obsessed me for a long time. That's why Seven is, from my point of view, one of the best films on this subject.
Lieutenant Somerset and Detective David Mills, the former a few days from retirement and the latter a newcomer to the city with little experience, will have to work together to catch a serial killer who draws inspiration from the seven deadly sins to commit each of the crimes. Gluttony, laziness, pride, greed, envy, lust and anger. Each of the murders represents one of the sins. Both cops will be dragged into the game of the psychopath, who has a plan with a terrifying ending.
From the beginning of the opening credits, created by Kyle Cooper, we are absorbed by this oppressive atmosphere. Those opening credits were revolutionary for the year 1995. They are a work of art within the film and marked the beginning of a new era, for the opening credits of many films.
It is shocking how the murders are shown, each one related to a capital sin. The first one, Gluttony, with the detectives in the house where the fat man's body is, who was forced to eat until he burst, is a pretty strong scene for many viewers. The sequence also serves to show us the differences between the veteran cop and the rookie cop.
Detectives have different ways of acting, they are two opposite worlds. Somerset, tired of seeing the ugliest side of a world in decline. Mills, the young detective who wants to stand out and eat the world. The old man who uses reason and the young man who is driven by impulse.
A city that lives in constant rain, but never says its name. It can be any city, anywhere in the world. With a clever direction of Darius Khondji's photography, they created that atmosphere of a decaying city, dirty and grey.
One of the film's best sequences, the chase that begins in the hallway of the killer's apartment, when Mills tries to catch him, culminating in the killer, whose face we don't see, pointing to Mills, who is waiting to die in the rain. But John Doe spares his life, which will remind him in the final part of the film, to accentuate the pain and tragedy in the protagonist. The actor Brad Pitt suffered an accident during the filming of this scene.
If you want people to listen to you, you can't just pat them on the shoulder, you have to use an iron mallet, only then you get absolute attention. Jhon Doe
The ending is one of the scariest I've ever seen in the movies. I remember it perfectly, I came out with a knot in my throat from the cinema. Hallucinating with what I had just seen, assimilating that shocking sequence. We could never see the contents of the box, but the traces of blood and Somerset's face said it all.
With the final sequence, something I've always said comes true, the most frightening thing is what we didn't get to see and what the director leaves us so that each viewer can make their own image. Each of us had to create the image that is not shown to us, making it impact us.
The resolution written by screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker didn't cross my mind, this being his best work. I was also surprised to see that the killer, John Doe, was played by Kevin Spacey, who was not in the film credits, nor in the promotions. The great actor, now disgraced by accusations of abuse, built one of the best fictional serial killers in cinema, along with actor Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, another masterpiece of the seventh art.
There's no room for happy endings. There was a reason for the film's pessimistic tone. There is no hope, no way out, no room for happiness in a world that seems destined to destroy itself. Those who follow my blog and read some of my stories know that I am no friend of happy endings. Seven made me hallucinate with her world view. The same one I've had since I was very young.
The film is from 1995. What is society like today? The tone of today's world is apocalyptic. Aberrant crimes, inequality, poverty, climatic disasters. Twenty-five years after its release, the film can be seen and generate the same sensations. The timelessness of the story can place the film in any modern era.
Morgan Freeman is phenomenal as Lieutenant Somerset I read some time ago that Al Pacino was one of the first choices for the role, but he couldn't do it because he was busy with another project. Fate wanted him to be Freeman, a perfect choice, I can't imagine this film without him. Brad Pitt was very good, he was already a movie star, but he began to look for more demanding jobs and to turn his career around. He was able to extrapolate all the anger that the character needed. Gwyneth Paltrow played Mills' wife, a supporting role, but her few scenes are of great importance. She and Brad began their romance in real life during the making of the film.
David Fincher, you all know who this wonderful filmmaker is, but Seven was his second feature film. He debuted with Alien III, which was a disappointment to many fans of the Alien saga. That shoot was very chaotic and Fincher, as he stated in several media, did not want to direct a film anymore, he would go back to directing music videos for great artists. But when he read the script of Seven, he wanted to shoot again, but on the condition that the original ending was kept. Apparently, according to information posted on several film websites, the production company agreed to keep the ending, but small changes were made to it anyway. The filmmaker is now one of the most important and his films have the recognizable quality stamp, he is a filmmaker with a very defined and unique style.
After its success, there was an avalanche of films that they tried to reproduce. Hollywood was exploiting the genre, with similar stories, but masterpieces cannot be copied so easily.
From time to time, I see him again. I know the whole story and the ending, but it makes me remember the night I saw him, like a lone wolf, at the nine o'clock show at the extinct Cine Obelisco in my city. Walking home with a chill all over my body and a bad taste in my mouth.
My Rankin: 5/5
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