But what a wonderful piece of top-level filmmaking. A neo-noir in which the power of suggestion rules, thus showing what happens without having to directly expose what takes place at that moment. Following an uncomplicated but resonant premise, the cast is incredible and could not be bettered in any way. Consequently, every emotion is perfectly conveyed, making the movie, amidst all its spectacularity, human and potentially future-true. The soundtrack is absolutely immaculate and I loved listening to Bach (not kidding). A curious fact is that the credits slide in the opposite direction than usual. So a bit of backstory first. A while back, when I set up my Letterboxd account, I decided to log every movie I'd ever seen. In the middle of so many old logs, was this magnificent movie that I saw for the first time on February 5, 2023. However, laziness reigns and I decided not to write any review. So here goes. INTRODUCTION Se7en presents an in-depth look into the mind of a serial killer. His modus operandi is based on the seven deadly sins: gluttony; greed; sloth; lust; vanity; envy and wrath. These are behaviors that cannot be dissociated from the human and that have been considered sins by Catholicism since the Middle Ages. However, this way of acting out one's thoughts goes beyond the borders of religious territory, becoming the purest essence of madness or abnormality. By studying this film, psychopathy invites psychoanalysis to decipher this enigma of the human psyche that hides behind the mask of the sinister. OPENING SCENE At the opening of the movie, we witness the dedication of the killer, who removes the skins from his fingertips, erasing his fingerprints, preventing them from remaining at the crime scene. The plot unfolds over seven days and takes place in rainy Los Angeles, where two detectives with contrasting but complementary characteristics are tasked with a risky investigation. Detective William Somerset, played by Morgam Freeman, is a mature and lonely cop, admired for his experience but rather tired. Seven days before he is due to retire, he meets Detective David Mills, played by Brad Pitt, a young, brash and impulsive policeman, recently transferred from a quiet country town to replace him. He is married to Tracy, a teacher played by Gwyneth Paltrow. Somerset, before leaving home, in an extremely symbolic gesture with metaphorical significance, activates his metronome. With only seven days to go before he leaves the hustle and bustle of the metropolis, the first of the seven capital crimes takes place.
THE FIRST CRIME - GLUTTONY
Detectives will investigate a nasty crime scene where an obese man has been tied up and forced to eat himself to death. Written on the wall, the word GULA. The first crime condemns the strangled man to death, as the sin of gluttony is translated by the uncontrollable desire for food. Detective Somerset, still at the scene of the crime, reads a quote from John Milton in Paradise Lost left by the psychopath at the scene of the crime: "Long and hard is the road from Hell to light". Somerset, in a moment of reflection, questions the fact that the killer would risk committing a murder that will take 12 hours if the act is meaningless. However, in the future, they realize that it does have meaning, as serial killers are predators who use violence to control their victims and satisfy their needs. Due to their lack of empathy for others, they violate social norms without the slightest sense of guilt or regret. According to some sociological classification standards, we find that both the psychopath and the sociopath are classified as cases of Antisocial Personality Disorder. They are usually insensitive and hedonistic people, with a great ability to rationalize their behaviour so that it seems right and sensible. In general, psychopathy represents a flaw in the personality formation process. Extreme cruelty and emotional insensitivity are central aspects of this personality disorder. Intellectually speaking, a psychopath does not have any reduced ability to discern between right and wrong. However, they lack moral emotions, feelings of guilt, regret, pity or shame. A psychopath is usually a charming person who has a high capacity for manipulation and seduction. Lying, deception and manipulation are natural talents for the psychopath. Emotional indifference is what makes them so dangerous, as it allows them to commit the most heinous crimes without remorse. The psychopath is a person without moral and ethical value, but fully responsible for his actions.
THE SECOND CRIME - GREED
Shortly afterwards the second crime takes place. A famous lawyer in the city is violently murdered, and the word COVENANT is painted on the wall in his own blood. However, behind a painting are fingerprints of the next victim, carefully placed by the methodical serial killer. Covetousness is an unbridled desire to acquire material wealth. The lawyer is found tied up with his head on his books, his face and a piece of flesh from his hip (near the femur) cut off. The sacrificial position appears as a form of remission of sin. The lawyer has lived a life of sin, as he has released criminals or prevented their arrest in order to gain money and power, and thus must die before the very object of his crimes: the books. Thus, the placing of his own flesh on the scales of justice (present on the lawyer's table) serves to redeem him from his sin. Like the previous crime, Somerset reads an excerpt taken from William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice that the psychopath has left behind: "A pound of flesh. No more, no less. No cartilage, no bone, just flesh. Once this task was done, he would be free". The obvious desire to punish seven people according to their sins leads Somerset to conclude that the killer must have left some piece of the puzzle that they missed, as there is always something they can miss. The detectives work diligently advancing step by step in the investigation, trying to find the right pieces to build this puzzle. Somerset, after years of experience, realizes that this is a serial killer. For the serial killer, the crime is fantasy itself, a work of art. The continued repetition of his acts serves to reanimate his fantasies.
THE THIRD CRIME - SLOTH
On the fourth day of intense investigation, the third crime takes place, highlighting the sin of Sloth. Sloth is a sin characterized by the person who lives in a state of slovenliness, which leads to marked inactivity. The man found was a former client of the previously murdered lawyer, who had been tied to a bed for a year, fed only by serums. Little by little, parts of his flesh were cut off, such as the severed hand that wrote the lawyer's sin on the wall. The victim ended up eating his own tongue. To understand the logic of the crimes, Somerset selects a number of works that deal with the seven deadly sins, such as: Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, John Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, in the intention of knowing how the psychopath's mind works in order to be able to capture him. The reference to Dante's work, especially to purgatory, fits into the context of Se7en, because the austerity with which the psychopath imposes the expiation of sins on his sentenced is almost unspeakable. Sins were used in medieval sermons as teachings. It was believed that for every sin committed there was a corresponding punishment. The detectives realize that the psychopath is preaching and that these crimes are his sermons. He is in the place of God who has given him a mission. Without feelings of guilt he builds his work, dictates his law, identifies himself with the Almighty, he is the creator and the detectives are his creatures. Somerset states: "He is a methodical, precise and, worst of all, patient subject". Somerset, through his genius, discovers by marking some books in public libraries, a list of names that leads him to John Doe - the name given to American corpses that arrive at the morgue without identification. The police enter his apartment and find a series of notebooks where John Doe, played by Kevin Spacey, calls himself a doer of God's orders to purify the world. With no name, no fingerprints, no history, we don't know where he comes from or who he is.
THE FOURTH CRIME - LUST
The fourth crime symbolizes LUST which consists of attachment to carnal pleasures, extreme sexuality, lasciviousness and sensuality. In a brothel, a man is forced to tie a cutting phallus to himself and penetrate a prostitute to death by excessive sex. In pursuit of the psychopath, Detective Mills is nearly killed. Not understanding why his life was spared, frustration attacks his psychological forum. Mrs. Mills has no friends, she feels lonely and therefore chooses Somerset to confide her anguish. She is confused because she is pregnant and does not know what to do with this new life, as she is depressed about living in a city she hates. In a moment of reflection, Somerset has a conversation with Mills, where he makes several comments, namely: how we repress our passions, directing them to other ends, denying our lower pleasures in order not to be annihilated by the consequences of our desires; and then elaborates on the difficulties of life, contrasting various situations (such as drugs) with dealing with life, ending with the fact that it is necessary to tame aggressive drives, because love and joy are expensive. Mills disagrees and says Somerset is a pessimist. Enigmatically, Somerset replies that it is interesting to see someone feeding on his illusions...
THE FIFTH CRIME - VANITY
The fifth murder is against the sin of vanity. A beautiful woman has her face completely disfigured by the psychopath. The model had a phone glued to one hand and a bottle of medicine to the other. Faced with this, the psychopath presents her with two alternatives: sleep, numb the pain and die, or call for help, and have the possibility of living with scars forever. The message left was: "Scream for help and you will live. But you will be disfigured. Or put an end to your own pain". Dying to live without outer beauty was the path chosen by the model.
THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH CRIME - ENVY AND WRATH
After having murdered five people, John Doe gives himself up to the detectives, saying that he already has the two missing bodies to complete his work, which would be that of Envy and Wrath, killed in a place that only he knew. John Doe leads the two detectives to a spot in the sunlight where the bodies of his latest victims would be. On the way he reveals to the detectives that he is only doing his job, at which point he states his personal desire to turn every sin against the sinner. John Doe justifies his crimes by saying that the world does not remember or know about capital crimes. He sees himself as the Sword of God, who punishes those who sin, having the need to rid the world of what he deems immoral or unworthy. The psychopath commits atrocities on his victims for the pleasure of being recognized throughout the world. Death is present in the movie throughout: night scenes, darkness, rain, a climate of oppression hangs in the air, but it has never been so present when in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the countryside, under a blazing sun, a van arrives, punctually at seven o'clock, to deliver a package to Detective Mills. Somerset opens the package containing Mrs. Mills' severed head. The movie takes on an intense dramatic tone. Desperate, he gesticulates and shouts for Mills not to hear and not to buy into John Doe's logic. He runs towards him and begs him not to kill him, not to do the psychopath's bidding. Somerset knew that the best torture to be imposed on the psychopath was to leave him alive, because by being killed he would complete his mission and achieve his glory. Cunningly John Doe reveals it to be envy. He confesses that his sixth murder was that of Mrs. Mills who was pregnant. At this point, nothing can reduce Mills' wrath. His wife is dead and he could do nothing to stop it. Mills is stunned by doubt, for if he kills John Doe he will assume to be Wrath, but if he does not kill him he will not avenge his wife's death. Then, as uttered by the psychopath, the seventh and final crime is committed at the hands of Detective Mills, who, no longer able to bear the pain he felt, becomes Wrath and kills John Doe, thus concluding the latter's work.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, David Fincher's magnum opus (of which I am the proud owner of four different editions of Se7en, Fight Club, The Social Network, Zodiac and Panic Room - all on DVD) ends up using the audience's familiarity with this religious theme to create a false security that ultimately collapses. It still is and always will be one of the best movies ever.
