Seven - We're Not Right And It's Not Fine!

(The scariest part of Seven)
(1995) ★★★★★

I should’ve done this long time ago, but it was so hard for me to talk about this almost perfect film in crime thriller genre. It was so mind-blowing and thought-provoking that I was exceedingly stunned and speechless after viewing back then. It still strikes me so after all these years just recalling it.

Seven is a great movie due to David Fincher’s ingenious direction; outstanding performances by Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey; Andrew Kevin Walker’s excellent screenplay; and of course Howard Shore’s impressive original music. It has a very emotional opening and a jaw-dropping ending. What happens in between is so called seven deadly sins (gluttony, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and wrath) triggering seven gruesome homicides committed by John Doe. Detective Mills calls him a lunatic, nothing but ‘a fucking T-shirt, at best’. We think he considers himself more like a preacher than a sinner in that decadent society, but we’re wrong in a sense when he says under the sun that, ‘it seems that envy is my sin’. That’s the creepiest line ever delivered by John in the film. Also, it’s the scariest part.

‘Seven Deadly Sins’ is a big topic. I’m not here to discuss it. I honestly can’t, because I’m not a religionist. Truth is, we’ve all got such vices, more or less. We’re all born with that, whether you like it or not. The reason why we’re here is because we’ve got delusion that we need to come here to get what we want. The thing is, we can’t always get what we want. That’s why we’re greedy and wrathful sometimes. When greed and wrath set in, those vices will follow. Then we’ll be more deluded. We’ll be pushed more far away from the truth itself, and become more miserable. You may wonder we have to be born with such delusion. It’s because we don’t believe what we think is real is not. We have no choice but to come because our mind’s full of selfish longings.

The world Seven depicts is cold, dark and bleak, vile and unpromising. So are the people dwelling in. Now we wonder why our world has gone so mad with natural disasters getting more frequent and destructive; more immoral deeds taking place but no one thinks it’s a big deal; some still suffering from famine and poverty while European countries are busy dealing with their debt crisis just because they lived it up way too much. Why do we seem to be losing the balance and going extreme? As a matter of fact, this world is nothing but the reflection of the work of our mind. To change the world, or say, make it a better place, we must change the way we look at it first. As long as we stay true, honest and kind, the world we live in will definitely not turn into a horrible place like the one in Seven.

Detective Somerset believes that it's worth fighting for the world though it’s not a fine place. Absolutely, we’re all not right, and neither is the world, but it doesn’t mean we should give up. We’re not seeing the truth, but it doesn’t mean we won’t forever. We shall keep on fighting and trying till we do one day.