🎬 Monday Film : Se7en / analisys

'Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.' are first words of the serial killer John Doe, that are directed to detectives Mills and Somerset in the film Seven (1995) by David Fincher. Nevertheless, the dark atmosphere of hell - Fincher's view of the world - not only it will not become light, but will be referred to as the most important determinant of the film expression of this author.

It's exactly that darkness, or the way of using light and rain as the standard elements of a post-apocalyptic vision of the world, will remain the most important link between the beginning and the peek of David Fincher's career. Although Fincher was born in Denver, when he was two years old, his parents, that had no relation to the seventh art, moved to San Anselmo, California, Marin County, one of the frequent shooting film spots of the time. Here Fincher began to work as John Corty's production director on various set-up jobs to become a 18-year-old in 1980 in Industrial Light & Magic, a special effects firm founded by George Lucas and worked on the production of Star Wars - Return of Jedi. Four years later, he directed the video for the anti-smoking campaign of the American Cancer Society where the fetus appears in the uterus with a cigar in his mouth.



Seven murders, seven fatal sins, a detective who has left seven rainy days for the premature retirement and a mystery number seven are the main motives of Fincher's second feature-length feature film - Seven. The film synopsis presented chronologically, brings an almost trivial story that does not suggest the strength of its form or the width of its ideosphere. The two detectives are desperately waging a serial killer who justifies his killing by sacrificing victims according to Seven Deadly Sins, the principle of Dante's contra-pass, capturing them within their own sin. The story leads us from one victim to another, while the killer John Doe (Kevin Spacey), with the help of detectives David Mills (Brad Pitt) and William Morgan (Morgan Freeman), preaches one deathly sin. In the end, he surrenders himself.

However, the film's title itself suggests that murders must occur and that their existence doesn't cause the discovery of one of the infinite number of serial killers. In the prologue of the film, in which the police are investigating the murder of a woman by her husband(murder in passion), which is, in fact, a picture of the world in which horrible murders occur on a daily basis, we find out that Detective Somerset is soon leaving and that is probably his final task .

The fabric of this film is linear, although it is also possible to speak of a parallel in which they diverge and intertwine two views of the world - Mills and Somerset - pointing to, however, a limited narration. Somerset is a lonely intellectual who witnessed  horrors in decades of service and that have destroyed his every hope.
On the other hand, Mills is a young, compassionate detective who wants everything here and now and who is ready to bypass the law to achieve his goal. He lives in a seemingly perfect apartment with his wife Tracy and still believes in the Better World. However, the two are linked by the fact that they are both volunteers - Mills demanded a transfer because of career progression, and Somerset voluntarily leaves the detective's call.
Following the dead letter of the law, they do not move from one place and they can only reach Doe's door illegally.



So the narrative composition is causal-consequent because their investigation has only one direction and only one end that is impossible to change. Because of this, the structure of the film is nothing more than the emulation of medieval morality, in which characters are usually trying to act in a predetermined rhythm. Doesn't this, however, remind us of our futile struggles to change our own destiny? Is the structure of morality not life alone? In this case, it is a matter of morality of Everyman. John Doe is Everybody. A man without identity and any human being in this world who receives a call from God and the task of exercising God's will.

Also, Doe's character must have its own funny side, because this is still a Hollywood movie (a scene in the desert when Doe answers to the dog's corpse: I didn't do it).
The prologue is followed by an introductory tale that shifts us to the point of view of Doe in which he directs his life's work. Everything that follows will come solely with his will and we will then know that he is the God himself. After that the film can start.

The first on the line is the cheeky Fatboy who is forced to eat until his stomach has exploded. In 17 minutes it becomes clear that Somerset will have to accept this most difficult task that will force him to reconsider his withdrawal decision. When Mills asked him - what are we doing? - he answers - we collect diamonds in the desert island in case somebody saves us. In addition to the three points of view, Walker and Fincher offer us a fourth in a single shot. This is where Tracy wakes up in an empty apartment, unprotected, lost and scared, which in a way hints at her tragic fate. Before that we were presented with another deathly sin that reveals the murder of a lawyer in whose office the blood is written - Greed. To reach that scene, Mills has to go through the long corridor and after arriving at the destination, he is lost in front of the mystery it holds.



The main elements of Fincher's atmosphere are rain and darkness. Even when dark is not a natural sequence that comes at the end of the day, his characters move regularly in rooms where there is never electricity or where is little light. So Somerset's world is smoky and dark; his crime scene are full of dirt and decay, and his office, torn and anxious, is a monument of unresolved problems.

Mills preferred the police rather as a profession, than a ceremonial duty. He has his own cups of hot coffee, a beautiful home and a beautiful wife. His first crime scene is brighter and saturated and his attitude is reflected in the words that are coming from the TV near (t) his will be the very definition of swift justice.

Also, throughout their search, the sun breaks for a moment and again gives way to the darkness, as it is not yet time to finish. However, Fincher takes us out of the full darkness for a while only when he decides to show us the killer. He opened our eyes to this, and in fact the first and most brutal murder - the other victims were killed by themselves - leaving for a sunny picnic in nature. All that we didn't want to see, looking for an excuse in the dark and the rain, now becomes the sunlight and there is no longer any room for doubt in the work of God.

The film's middle comes after finding the third victim, Victor's dealer, who was punished by Doe for his lazy behavior by keeping him bounded for a year. It's the scene of Somerset and Tracy's conversation at a coffee shop when she tells him that she's pregnant. Then we start to be scared.



ENDING
The Divine Tragedy
(Shmoop)

Sinfully clever serial killer John Doe turns himself into the police, but he's only committed five out of seven murders planned around the seven deadly sins.
Is he just a lazy serial killer?
Of course he isn't.
This is all part of his plan. He tells Detectives Mills and Somerset that he will take them to the last two bodies. They agree, and Doe leads them to the middle of the desert. Where are the bodies? That dead dog in the road? "I didn't do that," Doe quips, in a rare moment of humor.
Suddenly, a driver pulls up with a special delivery. While Mills guards Doe, Somerset opens the box.
What's in the box?!
It's the head of Mills' wife, Tracy. Doe killed her, after maybe sexually assaulting her. ("I tried to play husband," he says.) He tells Mills that his own sin is envy, and he encourages Mills: "Become vengeance, David. Become wrath."
And Mills does. He shoots Doe, committing the seventh murder and the seventh sin.And then he shoots him again. And again and again and again.

Note: The first part of the article was my translation from Serbian to English from PULSE article ''Sedam : Srednjovjekovni moralitet u paklu modernog doba'' by M.Skenderagic