We looked into the planning of a murder last Saturday when looking at Alfred Hitchcock‘s Dial M for Murder (1954). Today we extend the look into the madness of murder planning through the lens of a police procedural with a string of themed murders in the David Fincher movie Se7en (1995).
The movie Se7en deals in the unlikely pairing of young police detective David Mills with experienced police detective and lieutenant William Somerset by their police captain. R. Lee Ermey portrayed the police captain that assigned Mills and Somerset together, combining know how and the experience of Somerset with the youth and exuberance of Mills. Brad Pitt portrayed Mills opposite Morgan Freeman‘s portrayal of Somerset.
At the time of the pairing, the case that grew into a connection of seven murders started as the final investigation for Somerset before he retired. Mills had just joined the unit in the New York City, New York neighborhood, having earned a bit of an investigational track record that wasn’t yet on par with Somerset. When there became a theme of repeating murders that grew past the original murder, a drama that would put these two men at the center of it would start to form.
The two detectives did not see the world similarly with regards to police methodology, life experience, or much of a notion of liking one another. Sensing this false start, we as the audience are introduced to the family of David and Tracy Mills with William Somerset at Tracy’s urging. In the Mills’ home, we get a thawing of the Somerset and David Mills relationship over dinner and some comic relief around the youthful mistake of buying a home along the line of an elevated subway train. Gwyneth Paltrow portrayed Tracy Mills.
Both Tracy Mills and the New York Public Library factor into where the larger narrative of where this movie was headed. The character of John Doe, as portrayed by Kevin Spacey, is not introduced to the audience until well into the movie. The fate of John Doe, Detective Lieutenant Somerset, and the Mills couple is as potentially dark as the mystery underpinning the religious mythology that accompanies the notion of the seven deadly sins at the core of this movie.
The unfolding of the story that is Se7en struck me as powerfully written and well-paced. The movie holds up to multiple viewings, with the way things come together in resolving the underpinning mystery in a manner that quite possibly defies the expectation many viewers had coming into the film. It’s with regard for the cinematography as well as the storytelling that I offer David Fincher‘s Se7en 4.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Matt Lynn Digital 