In this episode of A Matter of Film, we will discuss Se7en. We will take a closer look at how David Fincher reveals only the necessary information to get the message across and why this is so effective in creating a compelling story with a dreadful atmosphere. We explain why Se7en continues to be one of the best movies of the 1990's.
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David Fincher likes to treat his audience with respect. In 1995, his second motion picture Se7en was released to shock the world. At the time, certain critics argued that the movie had no substance and it was just a gruesome spectacle. However, upon deeper analysis, you will find that Se7en is actually a very subtle movie in a lot of ways. It is this subtlety that many filmmakers, especially directors today decide to renounce. They hit you over the head so much with whatever the movie is trying to say that it gets to the point of being even insulting to the audience as if we don’t have the capacity to understand what the movie is trying to tell us. Fincher, on the other hand, only shows us just what we need to see or hear to get the point across.
In the opening credits, there are very clever cuts in sound and image whenever things start getting too disturbing. Another example is that for the majority of the movie we have no idea who the killer is. Kevin Spacey was even left out of all the marketing and opening credits.
A Nameless City
Since we don’t know the identity of the killer for the majority of the movie, the city plays a huge part in the story. In this vividly realized location, the setting itself is the antagonist for the majority of the film. Ambiguity is key here since we never know exactly where the story takes place, but we get just the right amount of information. It’s constantly raining and it’s seen and referred to as an ugly, disgusting place filled with crime. Not revealing the actual location where the story takes place is an extremely smart idea. While there certainly is crime in big cities like Chicago or New York City, we already know that these cities also have positive traits to them like culture. In Se7en’s nameless city, it’s all misery.
Restriction is Key
Fincher proves with Se7en over and over again that less is more: As an audience by knowing just certain things about what’s happening on screen and not the whole picture, we have to paint some of that picture ourselves. This is an important aspect of horror movies, the extreme example being The Blair Witch Project. A lot of times imagining is even worse than actually seeing.
A further example is the great Lust scene. We are given just enough information to connect the dots for ourselves, but that is enough. Fincher never actually shows any of the murders take place, which is a pretty bright choice because it leaves a lot of ambiguity for who the killer actually is and because we can play detective.
So the point is, Se7en could have very easily been really bad. It easily could have been some kind of corny slasher flick and it would have been really easy to just make it a gory spectacle in New York City or Chicago, where we see a guy fuck a prostitute with a knife for a dildo and Gwyneth Paltrow’s freaking head in a box. But we never do, and Se7en works exactly because of this. Great scenes like the dinner scene at Mills’ apartment or the diner scene with Tracy and Somerset, show us that the focus isn’t really on the violence, but on the people. These restrictions on violence effectively build up the dread more and more until we get a very good payoff. And it is, it’s one of the best examples of building up and finally paying off, although the ending is hardly satisfying.
“Wanting people to listen, you can’t just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you’ll notice you’ve got their strict attention.”
The Ending That Shook the World
Spacey dominates the final act of the movie. Being under arrest, Doe is an apparent position of weakness. But Spacey’s head haloed by the Sun foreshadows he is on his way to achieving his supposed religious purpose. John Doe is always shot on very stable close-ups, on a tripod. Mills, on the other hand, is shot handheld, showing his lack of control. Brad Pitt was dating Gwyneth Paltrow at the time so all the easier for him to show his emotions.
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