Director: David Fincher
Plot: Two detectives, a rookie (Brad Pitt) and a veteran (Morgan Freeman) hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi.
The Seven Deadly Sins:
- Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.
- Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.
- Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.
- Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.
- Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.
- Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.
- Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.
I am analysing the ending scene of Se7ven.
Painting the scene before the End Scene Clip:
The Scene begins with John Doe (Kevin Spacey), the serial killer in the back of the two detectives car as they drive to the prison. Even though John Doe is in handcuffs and behind a metal barrier he still manages to dissect Detective Mills with words. As the audience know, we are yet to find the victims of Wrath/Envy, and to find out the detectives are told by John Doe to drive up to a deserted field, at a specific field and wait. A FedEx box arrives, we do not know what is in the box.
The Clip begins with Detective Somerset peering over the box. The location challenges the thriller convention. The location is in a deserted field in broad daylight, isolated from humanity with also reinforces the thriller conventions.
The shot changes to an low angle over-the-shoulder shot of John Doe as he kneels on the floor looking up at Detective Mills as he points the gun towards Doe's head.
The use of a gun is a classic signifier that it is a thriller, it is a very masculine object and dominates the whole scene, like in Thelma and
Louise where she holds a gun up towards the man's head, authorising her power.
Meanwhile Detective Somerset begins to cut open the box, a tension builds as we do not know what is in the box, this is an effective trick used by Fincher. Once he has opened the box Somerset steps back in fright at what he has seen, yet the audience nor the other detective do not know what is in there, this builds the tension again makes the audience question what is going on.
Non-diagetic music then starts to play, which is very jumpy, this fits in well with the jump cuts from Somerset to Mills to then the box. As Somerset begins to shout to Mills, 'PUT THE GUN DOWN!', the tension builds extremely which is a classic thriller convention.
John Doe then begins to explain to Detective Mills about how much he 'admires' his life and his 'pretty little wife'. Immediately as an audience we begin to wonder what any of this has to do with Mills' wife.
The shot then changes to point-of-view as Somerset runs furiously up to John Doe and Mills. We can see the vanishing point which gives the impression that this landscape is never ending.
The shot again changes to a low angle shot of John Doe as he begins to tell the story of what happened between Doe and his Mills' wife, this shows Doe's power over the two detectives and that he has the upper hand in this scene.
As Doe goes onto explain that he took Mill's wife's head. As an audience we now assume that is what is in the FedEx box which Somerset runs away from.
The shot changes from panning in and out of Mills and Doe as Mills tries to reassert himself to Somerset that it is not his wife's head in the box. This creates a huge tension amongst the audience as we begin to put ourselves in Mills' shoes. We now know that this is the seventh deadly sin, Wrath. Throughout this the low and high angles keep changing to each character which implies the power keeps changing.
Finally Mills shoots John Doe, which ultimately makes him defeated as he accepts the sin of Wrath, thus ending the cycle.
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