The last time Out of the Past appeared on Matchflick I was praising the magical Audrey Hepburn. How do you like this for a change of pace? Why not go from one extreme to another? Post-Hitchcock the most praised murder-suspense movie is The Silence of the Lambs. As decent as Lambs may be, I've got one far better. In 1995 a relatively new director by the name of David Fincher teamed up with up and coming movie star Brad Pitt and veteran actor Morgan Freeman to make one of the greatest movies of the last 20 years. Twelve years after it's release, Seven remains in my opinion, the best work from either Pitt or Fincher. When I manage to unleash my 100 greatest movies list on the poor MatchFlick readers Seven will be on there somewhere. Why do I praise it so highly? Let me explain further....
"This isn't going to have a happy ending."
As I said, Seven is a murder/suspense film. The story is of a retiring homicide officer and his replacement investigating a series of murders. The murders, along with being extremely gruesome, are committed in what would be almost considered an artistic fashion. Each murder represents one of the seven deadly sins. Every murder victim has committed the sin of either Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy or Pride in the killer's eyes. In believing he is doing God's work he does his part to rid the world of whom he deems evil. Detectives David Mills(Pitt) and Somerset(Freeman) try to catch the madman before he completes his masterpiece.
"It's more comfortable for you to label me as insane."
One of the great beauties of Seven is that it's multi-layered. With repeated viewing you peel back more of the story and especially character development. When you see Seven for the first time the stylistically gruesome murders and the brilliant twist(I will get to that later) is what catches your attention. When you look deeper you see the true essence of why this is one of the greats of the genre. Our two main characters are as different as night and day. William Somerset is an intellectual and a man who is wise from experience. David Mills is ambitious and aggressive. Somerset is well spoken while Mills boarders on vulgar. The contrast of characters is a brilliant cinematic ploy. The heart of any great movie is character interaction.
"What I've done is going to be puzzled over and studied and followed... forever."
The first of the seven murders is gluttony. The killer feeds spaghetti mixed with pieces of plastic to an obese man until his stomach splits. Like I said, stylistically gruesome. Each following murder doesn't fail to disappoint the detectives and our now found expectations. Every murder is elaborate and chilling. You begin to feel that the killer(named John Doe) is toying with everyone, including his pursuing policemen. As Morgan Freeman's character offers "if John Doe is the devil. It might meet our expectations." After the fifth murder is committed we see the two detectives heading into the police department as a man emerges from a cab covered in blood. After getting Mills and Somerset's attention by yelling "DETECTIVE!" at the top of his lungs, we see a very bloody Kevin Spacey who simply says "You're looking for me."
"Do you like what you do for a living? These things you see?"
Once we meet the villain in this horrible tale the story seems to take on a more personal tone. It's as if maybe the killer's plan involves the policemen themselves. It's seems as if it's been boiling for awhile. One of the most brilliant moments of this movie is David Fincher's haunting pace. The events occur either in the rain or at nighttime. Even when the sun does manage to appear it's still with a very bleak and depressing presence. Fincher creates a very filthy and frightening world. One of inner city madness and it's consequences. The two detectives never seem to sleep and always appear exhausted. There's no butterflies or rainbows in this world.
"Wanting people to listen, you can't just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer!"
Both Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman have led very rich careers. Morgan Freeman's work in Seven rivals that of any in his career, In the end though, it's Brad Pitt that truly shines. In last 5 minutes of Seven Pitt went from a simple pretty boy to one of the most talented actors in Hollywood. John Doe's last two murders are by far the most shocking. The two detectives take the killer out to the middle of an open field. Somerset intercepts a van with a package marked for his partner David Mills. Inside the box lies one of the cinema's all time greatest twists. I know many of you have seen this movie, but I won't spoil the ending for anyone who might read this who's not seen the film. Though one of the amazing elements to Seven is that the twist is never boring no matter how many times you see it happen.
"Ernest Hemingway once wrote, "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part."
Seven brought David Fincher to our attention as an interesting new director and legitimatized Brad Pitt as a great acting talent. Neither man has topped this 1995 classic in the years following. Well, Orson Welles never topped Citizen Kane and Francis Ford Coppola never topped The Godfather. Seven may not quite be on the level of excellence as those two films, but all three share the quality that make them among the greatest films in the history of the art form. Sometime here at Matchflick I hope to write a set of 10 columns on the 100 Greatest Movies of All-Time. I've already said that Seven will make it onto the list, but just writing about it now makes me excited about writing those articles. In the mean time, I'll have to settle for writing about just one of the greatest of all time here with Seven.
"What's in the box?"
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| Out of the Past |
Every other Thursday
Discussing classic films from City Lights to Apocalypse
Now and everything in between and beyond.
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| Andy York |
Andy is a life long movie fanatic. The first movie he saw in the theater was Back to the Future, Part 2 at the age of 3 and he has loved movies ever since.
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