This movie is something of a
masterpiece, and it awoke something in me and my friends of the time that hasn't been put to sleep since. The beauty and terror of this movie is that it's main skill is in the
horror of the implied. You never get to
see the killer kill anyone, you are only left to piece together everything with your own
imagination, and it is so
lovingly presented that you cannot fail to be
touched by the sickening
tragedy of each and every murder. You feel
revulsion and
sympathy for the
Gluttony, cynical emptiness for
Greed, Distaste and Shock for
Sloth, and a spectrum of other emotions for each of the rest of the
murders.
Kevin Spacey is superb in his role as the understated and maniacal psycho. The excellent score by Nine Inch Nails guy Trent Reznor fits the mood of the movie perfectly. The Titles and the Credits are both done in a way that discomfits you from the very start to the very end. Somersets, slow, methodical, eloquent voice dripping like molasses eases you in to the pain and misery and dejection felt at each of these. To offset all this tragedy is of course Mills (Pitt) whose energy and enthusiasm, dedication, and sheer optimism carry the movie, and inject life into it's almost serene cinematography.
The movie plays on itself, from the skin in the titles, to the lenience of the killer being explored near the end. The pain and suffering of 'innocents' brought into question by cold hard analysis and a pace that reeks of inevitability. There are also all the hallmarks of a classic in here, the lack of any distinguishing marks, it could be any American city we are seeing. The bleak view of inner city life, and the harsh background noises of everyday existence. The family troubles, and emotional tensions creeping through people's lives. The attention to detail from the 'cut kit' in the flat through to the layout of the desk in the office. The classic character types, the tension between men and women, young and old.
The discipline shown by Hollywood in making this movie is staggering: No romance. No cuddly Sidekick. No Explicit violence. No cute kids that get killed for fun. No happy ending. Moral ambiguity. The killer could have been right after all, he did win. Or did he? We don't know we are left to draw our own conclusions, about what was in the box, whether it was wrong to pull the trigger, what would we have done? Is it love or hate? Who knows.
The movie is superb, and has been copied several times, in style and in content, the only thing coming close in my opinion is Fight Club, but even that lacks a certain something to make it into a classic, which is something that se7en undoubtedly is.