SE7EN could even be a great silent film

Rating: 10/10 (7 December 2009)

I watched this disc with the isolated score track, so that's why I wrote a summary out of left field. I'm a David Fincher nut and if he directed the Yellow Pages, I'd be there waiting to see it. (In an amusing analogy, Samuel L. Jackson was on a talk show over a decade ago, I think it was "Vibe", and he read out loud from those pages and it was great!)
So when Fincher, who's one of the few to earn the right to be called visionary, makes a movie, it's an event. "SE7EN" is full of vile images, depraved people and an outright hideous aura of urban hell. The desire to help, if you could call what homicide detectives work at help, is at the core of this sin in seven parts picture.
Morgan Freeman is such a commanding actor, you'd believe him in just about any part. Here he is, tired, ready to exit the blood soaked carpet of police work, even if his soul will never truly let him walk away from it. He'd be in his den, looking at crime scene photos from some long ago unsolved mystery and put in triple overtime in the unpaid retired police department.
Brad Pitt's character can stand to learn a lot from his senior partner, but he can't settle down or wait unless he absolutely has to. His impetuousness almost gets them in over their heads and John Doe (played by you know who) enjoys the sick game he unfurls like some epic serialized saga from the bowels of hell. Pitt and the mystery man are on a collision course and something has got to give.
This film is so rich visually and it's bizarre to call a tour of the evil human soul yanked out for all to witness "rich". Try to forget any shot you've ever seen from a Fincher picture and it's pretty much impossible. The man's style is like the old masters painting on celluloid.
"SE7EN" is best appreciated after a while without having watched it, at least that's how I approach the repeated views. Andrew Walker gave us a script which pretty much is the best fictional interpreting of a madman's mind. I doubt anyone will come up with anything more devilishly clever.