David Fincher He demonstrated with his filmography that he is a master of the thriller genre. movies like Fight Club (1999) Zodiac (2007) and Gone Girl (2014) give an account of this. But if we go back to 1995, his achievements were minimal: some work on television, advertising and a somewhat unsuccessful debut directing Alien 3 in 1992. This situation made his next project key to being able to take off, and without a doubt it was. seven (or Se7en) changed everything.
Seven is a film that gave a twist to thrillers policehorrifying and fascinating viewers and critics alike. A story that explored human depravity and concluded with an ending so shocking that it still shocks today.
What Seven is about
The film follows two detectives, the veteran (and about to retire) Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and young newcomer Mills (Brad Pitt) who just moved to the city with his wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow). Somerset and Mills must work together in the quest to solve a series of murders whose methodology is based on each of the seven deadly sins.
Fincher’s merit lies in having sustained the original idea of the film (despite pressure from the New Line Cinema studio), an idea that arose from the screenwriter’s mind. Andrew Kevin Walker.
Walker wrote the script that would become Seven in 1991, at the time an aspiring screenwriter employed by a New York record store. Mired in a deep depression with a job he hated and seeing meager opportunities to enter the industry of his profession, Seven’s script reflects the great darkness and cynicism experienced by its creator at the time.
“The idea of murders based on the deadly sins was a reaction to living in New York and inserting myself into John Doe’s head, I could walk the streets and see every deadly sin on every corner of the city. What would happen if someone who was too sensitive saw these injustices?” Walker revealed in an interview with Uproxx.
Seven, the city and sin as protagonists
Seven not only through its story, but also through its staging, embraces the idea that life is bleak and meaningless. The city has no name, it is covered by a gray sky and a constant deluge, there are no mentions of dates. This lack of temporal and place specificity, however, is counteracted by a city plagued by problems, explicit violence, and exhausted detectives. An atmosphere permeated with hopelessness and miseryin Detective Somerset’s own words: “I don’t think I can continue living in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it were a virtue.”
A box office success, a classic that returns to theaters 30 years later, Seven is undoubtedly a reference film within the genre. Its relevance marked the careers of those who were part of it, Fincher managed to make a name for himself within the industry, Walker continued writing scripts, and his protagonists continued with a more than respectable filmography.
Source: Ambito
