“Se7en”

     When viewing the film Seven, I realized how far ahead of time the director thinks in order to create a masterpiece. Every little detail in the film is connected and hints to the next. The film has structure, conflicts, repetition, cues, and a lot of symbolism to get to the bigger picture. 

    In the film, the big climax moment occurs within the last 10 minutes, which is unlike other films that I have seen. The quote “what’s in the box” from detective Mills is the highest most suspenseful scene in the whole film. The film is based upon Somerset's last week on the job and in the city that they live in, while it is Mills first in a new city. Somerset is an older very calm understanding and well experienced detective who is set to work with Mills, a young hothead detective, on his last week. The two detectives did not get along very well due to their very different personalities, they were originally assigned different murder cases that end up being connected to something bigger than they could have imagined. The film is told from a city setting, this city is very rainy and gloomy which makes everything spooky and mysterious. The days pass by each day of the week starting at Monday. That point of view by the week starting on Monday when the detectives are introduced. 

    In the film the narrative point of view mainly follows an unrestricted narration, because in certain scenes us as an audience know what is going on before the characters do. We also see through the point of views of different characters while still seeing everything that is going on as well. This makes the story seem much more interesting. Repetition plays a huge role of telling us what is happening, or what is going to happen in the film. The relentless rain symbolizes the punishment coming. Along with this is the repetition of John Doe landing his twisted torture method, each subtle scene of his plans leads us to the  bigger idea which ties all the other details together. The director sets up expectations to make you think you know what’s going to happen next, but then a dark twist comes along and scripts those expectations. For example, the unlikely duo of Somerset and Mills. It is a classic for directors to pair an older more seasoned character with a newer more reckless character, the expectation i that they would become great friends ‘unexpectedly’ but instead of this there’s a twist that ruins both of their lives. Another unexpected twist that narrative cues did not make me as a viewer expect is the surrender of John Doe. When John Doe turns himself in in front of everyone it completely flips the script, we are expecting to see two more murders happen before we even have sight of Doe, but that turns out to be wrong. It really left me wondering what is really going to happen, then a complete curveball is thrown at the end leaving me without words. 

    Symbolism plays a big role in this film, and one of the biggest meanings is the overall title of the movie. You would think that the film is called “Se7en” just due to the seven deadly sins in the film, but it actually symbolizes much more than that. It actually symbolizes the seven days of the week, Somerset's last seven days asa detective, along with the seven deadly sins. The box is another huge use of symbolism in the film that represents the idea that some knowledge is too terrible to picture. As Mills s asking the question “what’s in the box” the audience is also wondering the same thing adding up to the big reveal of the whole plot. This film uses symbolism to hit the audience with some profound questions about society a morality. The film had me on the edge of my seat and held my attention through every second. Overall, this film isn’t just a thriller but a thinker.