Customer Reviews

Seven (BFI Modern Classics)

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the author has some truly fascinating observations about this movie (ie. 7 motif that appears throughout) and goes into great depth about many aspects of this film (ie. the editing of certain scenes and the effect of a specific technique). he also mentions several anecdotal bits of info that are interesting. for example, the studio wanted to soften and Hollywood-ize the ending but Brad Pitt had it in his contract that they could not change the original ending. this is a really good read if you're a fan of the film and also a solid sourcebook if your a film student. it also doesn't hurt that the author has since contributed to several of the audio commentaries on the special edition DVD of the film!

For any fan of the film "Seven" this book is a great companion piece that discusses different aspects and ideas about the movie, which stood out among the action/horror genre as outstanding. Though sometimes long-winded the book is very interesting in anaylizing the movie and features great color photos.

The movie Se7en was an instance of a piece of work taking a tired and worn out genre to a whole new level, raising the bar for the genre thereafter. Both the plot and its execution were more intelligent, thought provoking and tightly presented than we are used to for movies with a subject matter open to cheapness and melodramatics.

Richard Dyer analyzes the movie in this monograph published as part of the British Film Institute's Modern Classics series. The movie incorporates the number seven into the details and this book maintains that pattern by presenting the analysis in seven chapters. It begins and ends on strong ground, providing the reader some excellent interpretations of key scenes that will allow a viewer to better appreciate the subtleties of the characters' interactions.

Dyer takes the position that the concept of sin infuses the movie and that this sin is inescapable. The movie is very unAmerican in tone, without even the promise of a happy ending. Interestingly, the producers did want to use a happier ending but this was thankfully vetoed, as Dyer points out, by Brad Pitt, who insisted on the original, darker ending.

The pervasiveness of sin is demonstrated by the two characters representing goodness. Tracy, the wife, is the embodiment of good in the film and we all know what happens to her. Somerset, the older detective, also represents goodness, and although he gets out in one piece, he is unable to stop evil from taking its course. Instead, he can only watch on.

Dyer missteps a couple times in this analysis. One instance of the number seven cropping up relates to the detail that Somerset is seven days from retirement. This is a tired cliche in movies. Dyer attempts to portray this as simply one more instance of the number seven playing in the details. But this cliche is so worn out that it instead feels artificial in a movie this strong.

More problematic is Dyer's devolvement into academic race and gender analyses, a topic even more worn out and cliched than the cop about to retire in a few days time. Although the killer's body count includes four men and three women, Dyer interprets the movie as misogynistic, a conclusion so ridiculous that it takes an intellectual to reach it. He digs himself in deeper by referring to this misogyny as "unthinking." For those not used to academic jargon, allow me to translate. This means that the rest of us uninitiated may not see it, but thankfully we have academic eggheads, who can read sexism into the word "the," to enlighten us. Andrea Dworkin, whose contempt for men was near pathological, is quoted in support.

Even more wince inducing is Dyer's analysis of race. Like much writing of this sort, it is so convoluted that it is difficult to know exactly what to make of it. Perhaps a taste will be sufficient. Most serial killers are white males, a starting point for Dyer on this issue. Dyer's analysis refers not only to the whiteness of serial killing but also (actual phrase) the "serial killingness of whiteness." Sheesh.

Again, the book has strong points and anyone interested in a better understanding of the movie Se7en will benefit from reading it. Simply be aware that Dyer cannot break away from the identity politics so rife in academics and that this detracts from, but does not negate, the utility of this book. It is an example that the best of the British Film Institute books are from social critics and writers outside the academic arena.

If, as I have suggested, the most successful in the BFI Classics and Modern Classics series are those written by critics and academics, than the very best are those by teachers. I would recommend Richard Dyer's brilliant monograph not just to admirers of David Fincher's celebrated film, but to anyone interested in getting the most out of their film-viewing. With facility and clarity, Dyer describes the mechanics of film-making - editing, sound-design and music, script, casting choices and performance style, camera movements and narrative pace, cinematography, mise-en-scene and imagery, location - and shows how they are all used to create meaning in 'Se7en'.

Dyer calls 'Se7en' 'a landscape of despair, a symphony of sin', a film 'extraordinarily un-American in its pessimism'. Appropriately dividing his study into 7 sibilantly-titled chapters, he examines it from an exhaustive number of angles. 'Se7en' is an archetypal serial killer movie that focuses on white male alienation in contemporary urban society, but is also a denial of the genre, refusing to demonise the murderer, suggesting he is simply an over-enthusiastic law-enforcer with the same attitude to the corruption of modern urban life as the policemen. Dyer shows how, through dialogue, script-structure and editing, the killer is connected to both detectives pursuing him. He shows how Andrew Kevin Walker's brilliantly constructed script both imposes order on unmanagable violence and despair, and denies it (I can't say how just in case you haven't seen the film). He examines the notion of 'sin' in a post-modern, post-religious world, with the minimal possibilities of salvation - religion, culture, human goodness - offered. He is particularly good on his own areas of expertise - star personae, race and sexuality.

Dyer thinks 'Se7en' is a Great Movie that does what Art should, exagerrating or heightening negative feelings about the world we live in that we suppress daily to survive. He treats 'Se7en' so seriously he even includes a 'map' to the narrative like those you get with Dante's 'Divine Comedy', and compares its climactic power to 'King Lear'. But for all his tireless analysis of the film, Dyer simply reinforces what it says on the surface. There is no subtext - every element, from script to theme to technical cinematic realisation simply reflects what we see, the direction dutifully and literally realising the script. Surely a classic film is one open to alternative interpretations, one that can be read against the grain, opening up a space for different kinds of viewing or viewers, one that on each re-viewing will reveal something new, deepening or complicating our first impressions? Nothing Dyer writes with such eloquence or enthusiasm convinces me that 'Se7en' is such a film.

If you are not religeous, then don't let that turn you away from this BFI Modern Classic. The whole book is a fascinating look into all of the different aspects of the film. Each chapter goes greatly in depth to the details in the film that matter.