1995
Directed by David Fincher
I find this film extremely upsetting, but I would still consider a great movie. See? I can do that sometimes.
In an unnamed American city (that seems to resemble Gotham or Detroit), Detective William Somerset has one week of work left before his retirement. After a lifetime of dealing with the dark side of humanity on a daily basis, he is ready to move to the country. It's kind of strange, as a character like Somerset would never want to watch a film like Se7en. Anyway, he is tasked with training his replacement, Detective David Mills, who has recently moved to the city with his wife, Tracy. A string of grisly murders based on the seven deadly sins push both men to their limits.
The violence in this film is sickeningly creative. The Lust death has always stayed with me and almost makes me wish I had never seen this. I have to give the filmmakers props for never actually making us sit through the crimes (which would surely be a vomit inducing experience) but instead just showing us the gruesome aftermath. The style of the film perfectly services the theme; I don't think I have ever seen such a dark movie.
Obviously, this isn't an optimistic film, but my favorite moments came from gentler scenes. I loved every interaction between Tracy and Somerset and when Somerset did research in the library. I am not sure if that was supposed to balance the movie out or simply to make the ending more shocking, but either way, it worked.
Great cast and a great film. Still, you might be happier if you don't watch this.
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
The cast includes four Oscar winners.
The actor who played the sloth victim weighed 90 pounds.
This is such a horrible film and one I never want to watch again. I think they went way too far on the gross factor and I felt deeply sorry for Pitt's character that he got involved in this case. ALL the deaths have given me nightmares.
ReplyDeleteI think they went overboard on the gross deaths too. I was just thinking that the greed death wasn't that disgusting, but I googled it and realized I didn't understand what it was when I watched it. Yuck
DeleteIf they had gone overboard they would have shown the deaths as they took place, a more grisly set of aftermaths or had the murderer as a screaming psychopath who took sadistic pleasure in his actions. The fact that they don't and leave it all to your imaginations whilst actually leaving a stronger impression than most films that do is one of Se7en's triumphs.
ReplyDelete