SEVEN

US, 1995, 127 minutes, Colour.
Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow, Richard Roundtree, R.Lee Ermey.
Directed by David Fincher.

Seven is a most harrowing film, a serial killer investigation. Morgan Freeman's detective is the veteran about to retire. In contrast is the ambitious, often extravertedly brash, Brad Pitt who is to replace him and who reluctantly works with him in what turns out to be a devastating case.

Freeman (Driving Miss Daisy, Shawshank Redemption, Glory, Kiss the Girls, Amistad, Deep Impact), has one of the best voices in American cinema. His acting in Deep Impact probably did more to make the possibility of a black president more real than any debate or learned article. He brings powerful dignity to his performances. He is a strong man.

However, in this film, he is portrayed as the long-time American loner, the introvert who has sustained his life by his work. In discussing marriage, he reveals that he was once in a relationship but that it had not worked. He is a patient and painstaking man. He is eager for clues, leads and their meaning. He is portrayed carefully examining and making notes at the scene of crimes. He is not dependent on how people think and feel about him. However, in his final week of work, he eventually warms to his eager replacement and becomes an empathetic listener to Pitt's wife (which makes the ending even more harrowing).

The `seven' of the film's title refers to the traditional Christian seven deadly sins. A serial killer challenges authorities, trying to appear God-like/Satan-like, by a series of killings where victims represent the deadly sins and their murder is seen as symbolic retribution for these sins. An ingenious screenplay keeps us alert until the end and David Fincher's direction and drained colour photography (with torchlights shining in the darkness to reveal the crimes and the criminal), imprisons us in a mainly rain swept city over seven days with the sun coming out ironically for the tragedy of the seventh day.

This is a grim `big picture' of a city where a detective has to look at the big picture of this insane religious punishment to identify the executioner. It is the exploration of the seven sins by Freeman's detective that opens up the vast horror of this big picture. Library investigation and reading offer references to medieval writings, to Dante, to Thomas Aquinas which stimulate the detective's thinking and his understanding of the gruesome career of the killer. It leads to a confrontation in the desert and a grim conclusion to the film with Freeman a Hemingway pessimistic quote about human nature.

Seven was one of the best films of 1995. Fincher had directed Alien 3. He continued his grim allegories of the struggle between good and evil in The Game and Fight Club.

1. Impact of the film? Quality? The background of serial killers and detection? '90s and contemporary films and realities of serial killers? The film as a 1990s morality play?

2. The title, the focus, the seven days, the biblical background and the seven deadly sins?

3. The creation of the American city - a mixture of architecture, layout, apartment blocks, parks? An amalgam of New York, Los Angeles and other cities? The police precincts, the apartments? The ugliness of the city, the streets, people, deserted? The clubs? The contrast with the ending and the light of the desert?

4. The musical score, the blend of sounds, music, the metronome, the phone and other sounds?

5. The creativity of the credits: the visual style, the introduction of themes? The influence of experimental film-making? The blade, the thumb without thumbprints, the book, the needle and the sewing? The emphasis on God? The blacking out of words? The biblical overtones? The lettering for the titles and credits? Light, colour, saturated and faded?

6. The prologue, Morgan Freeman as the detective, the loner, meticulous in his behaviour and manner, getting dressed? His meeting Mills? The contrast between the two men? The murders, the seven days? The contrast with Mills and his not being neat, his eagerness, the lack of reserve compared with Somerset? His wife? Somerset ending his career, Mills beginning his career - but a short career?

7. The film and its screenplay as a police investigation, detectives, partners, style? The sequences after the credits, the bodies, the buildings, the darkness, the search, torches and light in the darkness? The gross corpse of the fat man, the brutality of his death, gruesome? Food, pasta, his face? '

8. The film's introduction of themes of light and darkness, shadows? Lights and torches? The biblical and mythical tones of light and darkness and the way that they were used?

9. The detectives and their uneasy friendship, their modes of working together, the edge between the two of them, Mills and his ambition, Somerset and his achievement? Their motivations? Their talk, Mills and his patter, Somerset and his quiet observations, reserve? The determining of the causes of death, the nature of the murders? The autopsy and the impact of autopsies on audiences, necessity for investigations, revelation of evidence? The report to the officer in charge - his reactions, impatience, demands on them, not wanting Somerset to leave, Mills being placed under Somerset's authority?

10. The introduction of the theme of the seven deadly sins, audience knowledge of these sins, their evil, the way that they are practised? The introduction via gluttony, food, the gross force-feeding, the victim bursting, illness? The reaction of the investigators?

11. The meaning of the murders, the moral stance taken, the selection of victims? Their being punished? The atmosphere of religious justice - yet vindictiveness in the execution of the victims and the identification of their sins?

12. Morgan Freeman as Somerset: his age, experience, character, skills? Not wanting this to be his last assignment? His wanting to go to the farm? His being called by Mrs Mills, the matter-of-fact tone taken about the invitation to dinner? His going, the pleasantness of the interchange? Mrs Mills and her reliance on Somerset for protecting her husband, understanding him?

13. The contrast with Brad Pitt's extrovert style as Mills: younger, with police experience, yet lack of experience? Wanting his first case? At home, the house that they bought - and its vibrating with the trains? His relationship with his wife, the introduction to her, her support of her husband, the invitation to the meal, her wry observations on the clashes between the two men? The genial meal? Her support of her husband during the week? The prospect of family?

14. The police officer-in-charge, his skills, control of the investigation?

15. The chief of police, the press conference, the information given or not, the reaction of the TV reporters? The tantalising evidence: the masked photo, the victim bleeding to death, `Greed' written on the floor? The discussions about gluttony and greed?

16. Somerset and his investigation of the texts, his understanding of the seven deadly sins, his explanation to the chief of what was happening and what they might expect? The library, the classical music, Milton and Paradise Lost, information in Chaucer, Dante, The Merchant of Venice, Thomas Aquinas? His studying of medieval drawings and artwork on the seven deadly sins? The dictionary of Catholicism? The contrast while Mills was studying the photos, getting textbooks which explained as cribs the background of the classics?

17. Somerset and his observation on the killer - as preaching, the seven deadly sins as a moral framework, wanting people to be contrite?

18. The searching of rooms, the fingerprints, the tortured man and his being emaciated, the writing of `Help Me'? The information about his identity, the reason for his murder? The illustration of the sins? The continuing finding of victims - the victim of lust and the brutality of the club, the brutality of the instrument for murder? The tycoon and the room, the motivation for his greed? The illustration of sloth?

19. The introduction to the killer, his being elusive and not seen (and Kevin Spacey not being credited in the initial credits)? The pursuit down the corridor, Mills and his up front and gung-ho attitude, bursting into the room, the pursuit, his being outwitted, his being shot? Somerset and his quieter approach to the murderer? The phone calls, the contact? The discovery of the room - the thumb and the lack of fingerprints, the razor blade, the texts, the mutilated books? The further pursuing of the motivation, religious mania, `Playing God'?

20. The build-up to the finale, the confrontation between the killer and the police? The deal? The rendezvous in the desert, Somerset and his being wary, his warning Mills? Mills and his wanting a confrontation? The atmosphere of contrast with the raining and dull city and the light of the desert?

21. The final confrontation, Somerset understanding the psychology of the killer, Mills not understanding? The revelation of the murder of Mills's wife, her head? His reaction, wanting to kill the murderer? His being the seventh victim - the anger? His killing, the police coming, his being taken away - his future, a hell of condemnation? The contrast with Somerset and his observations on the experience? The final quotations, the significance of the events?

22. The film and its plotline, murders, investigation, confrontation? The enhancement of this plot by its visual style? By the religious dimensions? An exploration of the nature of evil - how pessimistic with Somerset's final quotations?