Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey and the David Fincher film ‘Se7en’

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).

(From left, R. Lee Ermey as the police captain, Morgan Freeman as Detective Lieutenant William Somerset, Brad Pitt as Detective David Mills & Richard Roundtree as District Attorney Martin Talbot in the David Fincher movie Se7en).

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.

(The seven deadly sins as referenced in the David Fincher movie Se7en).

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.

(From left, Gwyneth Paltrow as Tracy Mills and Brad Pitt as Detective David Mills in the David Fincher movie Se7en).

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.

(From left, Morgan Freeman as Detective Lieutenant William Somerset and Kevin Spacey as John Doe in the David Fincher movie Se7en).

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.

(Director David Fincher is shown on the set of the movie Se7en. Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, not pictured, wrote the screenplay for the David Fincher film).

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

Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar and the film ‘The Sandlot’

The Sandlot (1993) was a warm, family friendly movie of a somewhat rowdy collection of 12-year-old boys who liked to play baseball. The film is set in the summer of 1962, as a young Scotty Smalls comes into town as the school year is ending, summer is starting, and Scotty’s mom and step father are newly married. The film, and the adventures, take off from there.

(Pictured from left to right are Tom Guiry as Scotty Smalls, Karen Allen as Scotty’s Mom, Denis Leary as Bill, Scotty´s Stepfather, and Tom Guiry (again) as Scotty Smalls in The Sandlot).

Tom Guiry plays Scotty Smalls in The Sandlot. We first meet him as his mother and his stepfather, Bill, are moving the family to the neighborhood. Karen Allen plays Scotty’s mother, encouraging her son to make friends. Denis Leary plays Scotty’s stepfather, a distant man to Scotty who shares an interest in baseball yet a reluctance to connect with Smalls.

(Pictured from left to right are Patrick Renna as Hamilton ‘Ham’ Porter, Shane Obedzinski as Tommy ‘Repeat’ Timmons, Victor DiMattia as Timmy Timmons, Mike Vitar as Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez, Tom Guiry as Scotty Smalls, Chauncey Leopardi as Michael ‘Squints’ Palledorous, Marty York as Alan ‘Yeah-Yeah’ McClennan, Grant Gelt as Bertram Grover Weeks, and Brandon Quintin Adams as Kenny DeNunez in The Sandlot).

Knowing not how to catch, throw, hit, or anything about the history of baseball, Scotty aims to join the local collection of eight boys playing baseball on a sandlot next to a property with a dog that scares all the boys. The group is reluctant to allow Scotty to join the group until the best player in the bunch, Benjamin Franklin Rodriquez as played by Mike Vitar, offers some friendship. It is through some early adventures where Hamilton ‘Ham’ Porter, as played by Patrick Renna, shares perhaps the most iconic line of the movie: “You’re killing me, Smalls.”

(Marley Shelton as Wendy Peffercorn in The Sandlot).

Michael ‘Squints’ Palledorous, as played by Chauncey Leopardi, introduces an adventure that gains him the respect of his twelve-year-old sandlot friends. Squints first sees Wendy Peffercorn, as played by Marley Shelton, on the sidewalk outside Vincent Drug Store. The attraction for Squints was instantaneous, leading to an unseemly yet age appropriate endeavor to gain the attention of Wendy at the swimming pool.

(Art LaFleur as Babe Ruth and Mike Vitar as Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez in The Sandlot).

The adventures and day-to-day gatherings the crew often circled around playing ball on the crews sandlot. Losing the one baseball to the neighbor yard, with the scary dog, was a recurring subject for the boys. One day, after losing their ball when Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez literally hit the cover off the ball, Scotty Smalls volunteered the use of his stepfather’s prized baseball, as signed by Babe Ruth. Having hit that ball into the yard with the dog, the kids needed to retrieve the ball. Rodriguez dreamed of a visit from Babe Ruth, as played by Art LeFleur, which led to the biggest adventure of the movie.

(James Earl Jones as Mr. Mertle in The Sandlot).

Meeting Mr. Mertle, as played by James Earl Jones, was a key outcome for resolving the adventure involved with the signed Babe Ruth baseball. An outgoing biography of the players from the sandlot proved a sweet way to bring some sense of what happened with the players of the movie. That Rodriguez and Smalls stayed particularly close was a nice touch for a group of boys enjoying childhood for a period before more adult perspectives began to appear. As the film brings me back to a similar period in my own life, I view The Sandlot fondly. My rating for The Sandlot is 4-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, April 4, 2020