“Ernest Hemingway once wrote: the world is a fine place and is worth fighting for. I agree with the second part” (Se7en, Fincher). If God created the world in seven days, then John Doe (Kevin Spacey) created his own Nietzsche like society in Se7en (Fincher, 1995) in seven as well. Nietzsche once stated that we live in a world where “regardless of what we may verbally proclaim as our beliefs, we do not actually live as though those beliefs are true” (Nelson 10) and Doe, either knowingly so or not, shows the audience the horrific world he perceives by making us aware of the evil in all of us. Fincher exposes this amoral society through the reconstruction of the action film, the mise-en-scene, the screen time dedicated to Doe and the relation of the characters – specifically Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and Doe. By doing this, the audience comprehends Doe’s message, but still believes the words of Hemingway.
Mismatched cops
One can view this film as “Two mismatched cops, one young, white and cocky; one old, black and just one week short of retirement, set out on the trail of a serial killer.”(Johnson), so the typical fundamental parameters of most buddy cop films. Their different personalities not only help by giving them a unique chemistry, but it also helps in getting closer to the killer. Somerset tells Mills that he needs to talk the wife of the lawyer to find out what she needs to be looking for, because he knows Mills can manage to get more information out of her because of his youth and charisma. The film presents both of these characters as having issues with one another and unifying by a woman – Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow) – into finally working together instead of against each other to solve the murders. In that way it follows the structure of one of the biggest box office hits of 1988 – Lethal Weapon (Donner 1987)– which is today considered the epitome buddy cop film. By setting the film as such Fincher tricks the audience into believing this motion picture is going to have a certain structure and ending, but then changes the film dramatically into a thriller.
Although the film works on some level as a buddy cop, it was ultimately marketed as a thriller, and rightfully so. As Jason Scott wrote in his article The persona of Se7en: “The film’s genre is favourably determined in relation to the serial killer subject matter, with an association with The Silence of the Lambs(Demme 1990), and differentiated by the sins” (Scott). Not only was this film called: “Scarier than Silence of the lambs” but there were extensive campaigns comparing the two in any way possible – be it because they have the same composer (Howard Shore) or because they both dealt with serial killers that were beyond our comprehension (Scott). In a sense this film also works as a thriller in the most generic form, as Johnston in Sin has seldom look so goodwrites:
“All the stock story elements [of a thriller] are in place: the decoy suspect arrested at an early stage, the chase, the forensic enquiries, even the arch-corny climax at which the cop’s wife/ girlfriend is menaced by the killer.” (Johnston)
Yet it is the twists and turns of this film that allows it to be unique and work ultimately as what it is – a horror film.
As Cynthia Freeland writes: “horror films concern monsters. They may seem possible but they are not real…. the monster is true to life… he seems all-powerful, unpredictable, and a source of hideous violence” (262). In a sense, the monster is a representation of our own fears and desires, horror capitalizes on the idea of making our fears communal and works for us to overcome them, even if it is for two hours (Freeland 263-264). Yet in this film (and Silence of the lambs for that matter) we are “not horrified by the on-screen monster, but only by what the monster represents: sinfulness and the human capability for monstrosity” (Veronica S., 4). The monster, Doe, is not like Michael Myers or Freddy Kruger, he makes us aware of how sinful and apathetic our society has been, and makes us doubt even the most kind of humans. Fincher – by using Doe – destroys the implications and expectations of a buddy cop and a thriller and turn it into a horror film that analyzes our own demise as humans. We become aware of what Somerset stated about an apathetic driven world, and we agree with him.
Somerset was right, and by the characterization of its detectives this film also manipulates our expectations of an action film. Somerset in a way is very similar to Doe, and they both share very similar values and principles. In a thriller film like Manhunter (Mann 1986), the detective would try and penetrate the killer’s mind, but they never shared similar ideologies or reading habits. They were opposite poles: the killer was normally a misunderstood outcast (the tooth fairy in Manhunter, or Buffalo Bill in Silence of the lambs) that acted out his violence because of his social ineptitude. Yet, in Se7en Somerset constantly defends Doe and says that he is not a lunatic “dancing around in his grandma’s panties”, but he is “methodological, diligent, and worst of all, patient” man that enhances his curiosity. These qualities also describe him: from the first scene we see Somerset as being a very organized and punctual person, his life is symbolized by a metronome, just a series of repeated beats that will eventually come to an end. He understands Doe’s purpose and crimes, and from the start knows that this is not going to have a happy ending.
Somerset also recognizes that he himself is no different from anyone else, but can still judge the society he lives in. When he gets into the taxi, a POV shot shows the dark and rainy unnamed city and its displayed at its worst. Rain-coated men throw around a woman and the noises of children are heard crying from the start of the film. He states that he wants to get “far away from here” and his comrades repeatedly remind him that he will not be able to do it. In the revealing bar conversation he has with Mills, he claims that he can no longer live in a world full of apathy as he states: “Apathy is the solution. I mean, it’s easier to lose yourself in drugs than it is to cope with life. It’s easier to steal what you want than it is to earn it. It’s easier to beat a child than it is to raise it.” Hypocritically enough, Somerset himself is the one that suffers from apathy. He urged his ex girlfriend into getting an abortion, he lives his life in the shadows judging the world from behind the window, and he constantly states that it is too late to change the world, but what he is that he is too late to change himself. He tried to change the world – just like Doe does- but he realized he failed. He himself became a product of the society he criticized so sharply, just like Doe became part of his masterplan.
Doe behind bard
John Doe, unlike Somerset, is a product of his sins by personal choice. Through this point the film separates itself from most thrillers – looking back at the film we realize that John Doe has always had the upper hand. All the murders in this film have been completely subjective and we have never doubted it. But there are flaws in his plan, like for example Tracy and the prostitute. The film never addressed these questions, but it can be argued that Fincher desired it to be this way to state a message about monsters in horror films. First of all the prostitute is not guilty of lust (Merriam Webster defines Lust as intense or unbridled sexual desire) because she does not desire sex, it is her clients that do, but Doe calls her a “disease spreading whore”. Secondly, Tracy is not guilty of any sin, but Doe still manages to kill her as a way of provoking wrath in Mills. Thirdly, he creates himself to be envious just so his masterpiece could resonate more. By that I mean that he could have easily found someone that was envious of another human being, but he chose to end his plan that way so he could be remembered his plan would be “puzzled over and studied and followed… forever”. All of these completely subjective murders are left unexplained by Fincher so the omnipotence of John Doe as an angel of death can resonate more, and we can interpret them whichever way we like. Furthermore, by allowing Doe to explain his actions and ideas, Fincher manages to dismantle the idea that we normally have of horror villains as crazy psychopaths and humanizes John Doe. By doing this, the monster becomes more like us – making us examine ourselves and criticize our apathy towards the amoral world.
In the most simplistic of Christian allegories, John Doe becomes a religious figure that dies for our sins. Nelson compares him to Jesus Christ by saying that “The significance of his killings is found in the fact that… in reality it could be argued that he has redefined the God of Christianity, such that he ironically reverses the biblically defined values and work of Jesus Christ.” (Nelson 11). This nihilistic message of “God is Dead” and making the serial killer the new messiah is very prominent theme today in shows like Dexter and films like Saw(Wan 2004), yet is has been prominent in film since Night of the Living Dead(Romero, 1968) and Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1976). “ However, Se7en is not Saw. The killings do not play out actively, but through crime scenes and photographs” (Agaric). Se7en in contrast is unique because even if we grasp this nihilistic message, the audience knows that this is not the message we are supposed to take home because of Somerset’s words and final actions. We criticize both the world and John Doe, and change our values as to not to hurt anyone in the end.
Somerset
If Doe suffers from envy, and Mills suffers from wrath, then Somerset suffers from apathy, which is the derivative of the now known sin of sloth (Jamison). Yet he starts caring about something by the end of the film: Tracy and Mills. By working as a buddy cop film, the film manages to present Somerset as a sort of fatherly figure to this couple and when they are destroyed he manages to evolve. Not only does he does something he had only done three times before – pull out his gun – but also slaps John Doe in the face and tells him to shut up. In that sense, no one is left untouched in this thriller, but Somerset is hurt in another way, he changes to try and be more hopeful about the world to fight for it. He becomes the recipient of the message Doe was trying to contribute to the world, and just like the audience should do, he decides to take a step towards bettering the world one step at a time. It is easy to see that John Doe wanted this from the start. He is human, and he does enjoy killing his victims, but all he wanted was to better the world around him. He claimed that he was on a mission from God, and he chose Mills to kill him for a reason.
Doe had a message to perpetuate to the world and Somerset is the one that comprehends it and decides to change for the goodness of humanity. By working as a buddy cop the film manages to change the character of Somerset from an apathetic character to a more sympathetic one. By working as a thriller the film presents an incomprehensible villain and follows the parameters of a detective story, yet even if Doe was murdered in the end, his legacy still continued – making this a horror film. In the end we discover that the murders were subjective and shown to us according to what Doe wanted us to watch so his masterpiece could be completed and studied continuously. Doe manages to become a mythological Christ like figure that dies for our sins in the Nietzschean and nihilistic society that both Somerset and Doe perceive in this unnamed US city.
Works Cited
Agaric. “Se7en: Fincher’s Thriller and A Memorable Serial Killer Film – Associated Content.” Associated Content. Associated Content, 14 Dec. 2006. Web. 1 Nov. 2009. <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/83716/se7en_finchers_thriller_and_a_memorable.html?cat=40>.
Freeland, Cynthia. “Realist Horror.” The Philosophy of Film: Introductory Text and Readings. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005. 260- 269. Print.
Haddington, Pentti (1998). This is not going to have a happy ending: searching for new representations of masculinities in David Fincher’s Se7en. Pro Graduate Thesis. University of Oulu.
Jamison, Abbot. “Spiritual Apathy: The Forgotten Deadly Sin” Thinking Faith – the online journal of the British Jesuits. Thinking Faith, n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2009. <http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20081009_1.htm>.
Johnston, Sheila. “also showing: Sin has seldom looked so good.” The Independent . The independent, 4 Jan. 1996. Web. 1 Nov. 2009. <http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/also-showing-sin-has-seldom-looked-so-good-1322301.html>.
Nelson, Matthew (2009). Mulhall, Film, and the importance of self-reflexivity.Philosophy: senior tutorial. Dr. Petersen.
S., Veronica . “Analysis of the Source of Horror in David Fincher’s Se7en.”Associated Content – Arts and entertainment. Associated Content, 17 May 2007. Web. 6 Nov. 2009. <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/242865/analysis_of_the_source_of_horror_in_pg2_pg2.html?cat=40>.
Scott, Jason. “The persona of se7en.” Scope. Sheffield University, n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2009. <http://www.scope.nottingham.ac.uk/article.php?id=7&issue=1>.
“The Seven Deadly Sins.” White Stone Journal. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2009. <http://whitestonejournal.com/index.php/seven-deadly-sins>.
Filmography
Seven (Single Disc Edition). Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman. New Line Home Video, 1995. DVD.
Posted by mariofas 
Really, there is only two actresses competing for this award: Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep. Forget the rest.
The last spot is not certain at all.
Emile Hirsch – The guy can act. He is second to the top of my list because he looks the age, he looks a bit like Peter Parker, and after seeing Milk and Into the Wild, I can definitely say that this guy can act. In The Girl Next Door he played an almost cool nerd, and I am sure he can play Parker with ease, although they might want someone with less of an intimidating aura (after Into the wild, he sort of went into rebel status). He also seems to like smaller budget films over big blockbuster, with Speed Racer being one of the few big budget he has done (and the worst).
