Seven

Seven (stylized as SE7EN) is a 1995 American neo-noir psychological crime thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltow, Kevin Spacey, R Lee Ermey and John C. McGinley. The screenplay was influenced by the time Walker spent in New York City trying to make it as a writer.

Plot
When retiring police Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) tackles a final case with the aid of newly transferred David Mills (Brad Pitt), they discover a number of elaborate and grizzly murders. They soon realize they are dealing with a serial killer (Kevin Spacey) who is targeting people he thinks represent one of the seven deadly sins. Somerset also befriends Mills' wife, Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is pregnant and afraid to raise her child in the crime-riddled city.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) A great story about two detectives tracking down a deranged serial killer.
 * 2) The premise of a serial killer whose murders are based on the seven deadly sins is extremely creative and compelling.
 * 3) John Doe is an intimidating and despicable main antagonist and his motivations are very creepy and sinister. Not to mention the absolutely brutal, grotesque and horrific methods he uses in order to kill his victims, which are also clever and smart:
 * 4) *Gluttony: A morbidly obese man forced to eat until his stomach burst.
 * 5) *Greed: A criminal defense attorney killed after being forced to cut a pound of flesh from himself.
 * 6) *Sloth: A child molester, strapped to a bed, emaciated and barely alive.
 * 7) *Lust: A man forced by Doe at gunpoint to kill a prostitute by raping her with a custom-made, bladed strap-on.
 * 8) *Pride: A model whose face has been mutilated by Doe; she's given the option to call for help and live disfigured or commit suicide by taking pills, and chooses the latter.
 * 9) David Mills and William Somerset have great chemistry with Somerset trying to help harden Mills to the harsh realities of life.
 * 10) Great dialogue, such as:
 * 11) *"Wanting people to listen, you can't tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer and then you notice you've got their strict attention" 
 * 12) *"WHAT'S IN THE F***** BOX?!" 
 * 13) Creepy, yet memorable and inventive opening credits.
 * 14) Brilliant cinematography that deliberately uses a dark and brooding color palette makes every thing look dirty and drab to convey how crude the city (and the film) truly is.
 * 15) Terrifying and atmospheric soundtrack that was composed by Howard Shore.
 * 16) This was the film to jumpstart David Fincher's directing career.
 * 17) The film helped to popularize the archetypal 90s and 2000s Psychological Thriller/serial killer movie, but goes out of its way to avert or subvert many of the tropes the genre would become associated with: the murders are not shown in detail and given very little screen time, there is little blood and gore, the killer is not given a Freudian excuse or much characterization, Police Are Useless, and the villain wins.
 * 18) Great acting especially from Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt who really sell the chemistry between their characters. Kevin Spacy is also notable since he's mostly calm and almost deadpan which gives him a feeling of being cold and calculated.
 * 19) Lots of suspenseful and unforgettable scenes. Particularly the scenes when the bodies are discovered (along with the revelations of how they died, which are incredibly graphic).
 * 20) The poster (which features text reading the names of the seven deadly sins crossed out in red in between the images of David Mills and William Somerset in a background that looks like walls with peeling paint) is iconic.
 * 21) The violence isn't gratuitous, mainly because we don't see the serial killer doing the murders. Instead you see the aftermath and have to imagine what happened which is arguable worse.
 * 22) The Brutal and Tragic Ending: John Doe reveals that he himself represents the sin of envy as he envied Mills' married life with Tracy for which he murdered Tracy (and her and Mills's unborn child) and sended her severed head in a box to Somerset for that exact moment. While Somerset tries to prevent Mills from killing Doe, he finally snaps it and shoots him twice, therefore, becoming the sin of wrath; just like that, Doe's plan worked. Mills is arrested, a hollow traumatized husk of a man. While the film tries to end on a relatively optimistic note with Somerset's (studio-mandated) Hemingway coda, it seems awfully futile in the face of what's occurred.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Modern viewers might find the notion of a serial killer who implements cruel and elaborate tortures to deliver karmic death to his victims to be cliché, but in 1995 it was genuinely horrifying and new.
 * 2) The foreshadowing that Somerset will have to actually shoot his gun (or use his knife) is never fulfilled, mainly because it was supposed to in two of the many alternate endings. One that features a dramatic shootout in a burning, dilapidated church in which Mills dies, and the other had Somerset kill John Doe in order to save Mills from becoming "Wrath."
 * 3) The ending is solid, but can be upsetting to some viewers.

Critical Response
Seven received mostly positive reviews from critics and audiences alike who praised the film's dark style, brutality and themes. It currently holds an 81% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average of 7.76/10 and a critic consensus that reads, "A brutal relentlessly grim shocker with taut performances, slick gore effects, and a haunting finale." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 65 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews" while the film has an 8.6/10 on IMDb. Roger Ebert gave the film a four out of four and commented on Fincher's direction: "None of his films is darker than this one."

Box Office
Seven was released on September 22, 1995 and grossed $13.9 million on its opening weekend. It went on to gross $100.1 million in North America and $227.1 million internationally for a total of $327.2 million, making it the seventh-highest grossing film of 1995.

Awards and Nominations
The film won three MTV Movie Awards. One for Brad Pitt for Most Desirable Male, one for Best Movie and one for Kevin Spacey for Best Villain. It also won three Saturn Awards for Best Writing, Best Make-up and Best Foley Mixing.

It was nominated an Academy Award for Best Film Editing and five Saturn Awards. It was also nominated an MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo and a British Academy Film Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Trivia

 * The film’s brooding, dark look was achieved through a chemical process called bleach bypass. The silver in the film stock was not removed, which deepened the dark shadowy images in the film.
 * David Fincher said on the DVD commentary that he felt really bad for the actor who had to wear all the hot, heavy gluttony prosthetics, so to compensate, he made him well-endowed.
 * Make-up for the 'sloth' victim took over fourteen hours.
 * The filmmakers decided it should always be raining for two reasons: It added a sense of dread; and they never had to worry about bad weather.

Videos
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