SE7EN re7isited

[nutmegalomaniac]

This is from an email I sent on Thursday. But it turned into a mini-essay I liked. So I'm posting it here.

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In my mission to get through my stack of unwatched DVDs, I put on Seven last night. I hadn't seen it since probably the 90s, and it was a good way to prepare for Zodiac, which I'm pretty excited for.

When I saw Seven at the age of

Comments

[littlegirltoast]

I think that Seven and The Crow are two of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life, speaking both morally and critically, and if I could un-see them I'm certain I would!

[r_lex]

I can see Seven being that bad from your perspective, but the Crow? Illuminate me.

[littlegirltoast]

Well look don't hold me to this because I haven't seen it but once and that was when it first came out for rental, but it seemed to be a wholly gratuitous revenge flick - like a gothic Braveheart! The female character who got raped was a mere extension of the male character who would have to avenge her - in both instances it felt like the writers' idea of the worst thing you could do to a guy would be to rape his girlfriend, and it also is such an unquestionably vile act that it automatically justifies any inhuman response, which is what the whole rest of the movie consists of. Brutal "ironic" killings, just like in Se7en. Don't they in fact both involve a character stuck all over his body with needles

[nutmegalomaniac]

There's irony in the murder scenes of both Seven and The Crow, though neither film contains the aforementioned needle scene.

Re: The Crow - I think you're looking at selected trees, and seeing about half the forest. With Fincher's Zodiac (which is all trees and no forest) this wouldn't matter. I don't like the revenge genre either, but The Crow is beautifully done

[boomtube]

I still think SE7EN is an outstanding movie, although it's sadly wrought a number of shitty knockoffs (I'm looking at you, SAW franchise). I love how Fincher handles cop banter, and I love the restraint he shows in never having the murders occur onscreen (although, if I may nitpick, Mark, we do get some onscreen grief--a vital clue comes from Eli Gould's grieving widow when she notices an upside down painting in his office).

[nutmegalomaniac]

I guess I'm wrong on the grief thing. But it's so little that the dead people are still basically just objects of mutilation. There is a hell of a lot of skill in the movie that makes it stand above all its knockoffs. Even movies that copy its atmosphere (a Keanu Reeves film called The Watcher comes to mind) end up making their consistant tone too monotonous. When I was watching Seven the other night it just played as a bit too cool. It has a very fashion-conscious cynicism. Despite this, Fincher is someone whose movies I always look forward to. And this may be my second favourite of his after Fight Club. But I like Fight Club substantially more.