review on Se7en

Rating: 10/10 (10 June 2014)

The movie Se7en tells the story of two homicide detectives, David Mills (Brad Pitt) and William Sommerset (Morgan Freeman), who try to solve seven mysterious murders. All the seven murders are committed very sadistically as the victims are badly mutilated. The mutilations have the purpose of symbolizing the seven deadly sins described in the Bible. David Mills is the new homicide detective and he is aided by the soon to retire William Sommerset. The difference between old 'veteran' Sommerset and 'rookie' Mills brings quite some conflicts in the beginning, but eventually the both of them agree that if they want to catch the killer, they will have to work together and make use of each other's strengths. The movie takes some major twists and turns at the end, and this does contribute to giving the movie a satisfying ending.
We think Se7en is a good movie. The story behind the murders with the seven sins connected to it makes you think, whether or not the murders were really that bad, or did the victims (sort of) deserve it? Asking yourself this question is the result of the strong movie, as you would normally not even consider if a murder was right or not. As mentioned before, the movie builds up to the end, which does live up to the expectations created by the rest of the film, as the ending is just as dramatic and well done as the other parts of the film, which leaves you with a satisfied feeling.
Editing plays a very big and important role in the production of movies, and this movie is no exception. Basically, everything that is even slightly altered from the recorded parts is included in the category editing. Editing therefore is making changes in filmed fragments, and putting these changed fragments together to form a fluent and pleasant to watch movie. An editor therefore has to make a lot of decisions. What parts should he choose to put together to create the right feeling and to satisfy the producer? why should he choose these? Etc. Editing, however, is not just used to make the movie look good or catchy, it's also used to give the audience a certain feeling, imprinted in their minds by the director. In this way, the director can set the experience of the movie to his hand.
Using things such as different lighting, camera height, music and shot length, the movie directors can give the audience certain opinions about the characters without even having the character say a single word. Characters with power are often filmed from a low perspective, as this symbolizes them being greater than you. Meanwhile, meaner or evil characters often have a darker glow around them and different background music, because this creates tension. Difference in Shot length shows a difference in the amount of energy used. The shorter the shots, the more energy is in the actions. For example, in a shooter, shots constantly change from one to the other, whereas in a love-story, the shot length is way longer, to make it more romantic and lovable.
This movie includes a lot of dramatic and painful scenes, wherein the director made use of a range of different shot transitions, to highlight the different amounts of tension in the scenes. In order to make sure that the message is communicated to the audience, they use longer shots and they pause between the monologues. In this way, the audience is forced to think about what's being said and what the message of the movie is. When energetic and active scenes are concerned, the director chose for short shot length, and fast shot transitions, in order to give the scenes more speed.
The film was shot in a way that is uncommon in popular films. It was shot in a special way using special lighting, making lots of shadows and silhouettes. The film was then edited with a process called C.C.E, which enhances the quality of the lights, making the dark parts darker and the light parts whiter. This alteration from the original is permanent.
Most of the colors used are shades of black and grey, so that parts of the images with primary colors (red, yellow and blue) stand out in contrast. In this way, red is often used, because this reminds the people of blood. The colors of this movie have a fakish look. This way, the viewer gets the impression that they watch a coloured-in black and white movie. This sequence is called neo-Gothic, and in my opinion fits well with the story and the rest of the movie, wherein mainly darker colors are used which corresponds with the dark murder theme.
Although this is a pretty rad movie, sometimes scenes can get a bit too slow for our taste. This made us lose track of the story a bit, halfway through, and as a result we had to rewind some parts, to understand them. I have given this movie some thought and can conclude that the directors and producers made an excellent decision regarding the choosing of the actors starring this movie. Morgan Freeman is perfectly able to capture dramatic moments, making the viewers feel sympathy for the actor, and thus making them follow the story better. Likewise we think Brad Pitt is well chosen too, because he is highly experienced with action and shooting scenes. Furthermore, the storyline isn't as linear as one would expect from a crime thriller. On the one hand it's a straightforward murder mystery, but on the other hand there are loads of plot twists to make the movie more interesting and challenging to understand.
We think it's a highly interesting movie. We would definitely recommend this movie, because it is an highly enjoyable and interesting story, and the way they made use of the different kinds of filming editing gives this story even more tension when needed.