Se7en

1995

Psychological thriller

Brad Pitt, Detective David Mills

Morgan Freeman, Detective LT. William Somerset

The opening scene

Use of props, close up on the things, which indicates the significance of the place that he is about to go, also the way that he picks them shows that he is very methodical.  54 seconds into the film so far and we can see a dead body already, which creates mystery and is unconventional to see that quickly in the film, as usually we usually getting to know and gradually builds up, but this makes us wanting to watch this film. He is lying in a massive pool of blood, makes us feel uncomfortable, as we don’t know who this is or what has done this to him, his brains are showing out of his head. Also the lighting is dark because the curtains are drawn. Morgan looks at the fridge and the picture on it that is a children’s picture, and he doesn’t like the fact that a child could of seen this, because there is a massive contrast between the blood and the child.

Second protagonist- looks a mess because his shirt is not ironed, looks cocky by his facial expressions and the way he is trendy, is complete opposite to the first protagonist. Low angle shot, makes them look powerful and high up. The rain indicates the fact that we want them to go inside to find clues. 2 shot- mystery because Morgan wants to know why he is there, as something not very has happened creates mystery because we still don’t know who the second protagonist is. 7 days has been mentioned, as the Morgan is leaves the police force in 7 days- compares to the title 7. He doesn’t like it that Morgan Freeman is knocking him down. The way that he walks in front of Morgan shows that he rushes into things too quickly and thinks that he is important, whereas Morgan is slow, but thinks everything through.

The clock- prop he is using that to hypnotize him to try and get him to sleep because of the sounds at the background. Also it could represent the time is ticking for him.

The title sequence:

Pages turning of a book, razors and the titles look like they have been cut into something, a lot to do with sharp objects, fast movement. We can see skull with a screw going into it. Someone was cutting the fingerprints off. The titles flash, which suggest danger. Seven- taken the v and put in 7, so it looks like this; se7en plus the screechy sound, sounds like scraping against something, gives an almost a supernatural look and we would feel very uncomfortable. The sound reminds me of the lights flicking which make me feel uncomfortable. There is also red light and Red blood flashing, which symbolises danger and death. Then we can hear a woman seeming. It builds to how difficult it Is going to be to catch him, because of the fingerprints, the fact that the writing titles are cut out. He has very dirty finger nails. More flashes of red. The image of the pin inside o the skull shows some sort of a brain procedure- lobotomy, attacking someone’s brain, and it shows that he really believes in what he is doing. The way that he threading the papers looks like he is making a book out of his papers which shows the precision which shows that it is going to be incredibly hard to catch him. Pictures of dead bodies shows that he a murderer ad is either planning, or has killed these people on the photos, or He might catch people and do something to them before he kills them.

When it goes back to the film;

It starts on Monday, which starts the week off, emphasises the fact that we only have 7 days in this thriller to catch him and judging by the title sequence, it will be quite hard. Brad pitt has a wife, we knows this by the shot of them laying together and he has his arm around her. Brad was at the window, but because of the jump cut, we didn’t see what he could see out of the window. He was shaking in the rain, very unconventional for a detective. Freeman rejects the coffee which shows that he is very straight forward and just wants to get on with his job and investigation, but also shows a sense of arrogance.

 They are going to a crime scene to have a look at dead body, long shot, very dark, cold and dump like, shows that the next scene is going to be not very pleasant. They go behind the fence, which shows a possible protection or fear. Morgan is in front of Brad, which shows the authority.  The house that they are going to is very dark, the music, as they walked in the house got stronger and dangerous like. The lights don’t actually work, which shows that the house is old and not been looked after, however, there are 2 TV’s in the room. The ocean on the TV might reflect loneliness and wants to be free. They have cut his head of the shot to show that we can see what he is looking at, so it focuses on the situation.  There were insects on the table, which shows that he has been dead for a while. First sin that we see is gluttony on a Monday because he is very big and he died with his packet of crisps. There are a lot of spaghetti source in the cupboard, the killer has possibly put them there to indicate the fact that he was big and to shows gluttony.  The editor is holding us there to makes us wait to see what he is focusing on, and then we can see that it was a murder because his feet are tight and his hands are tight too.  It is like we and Freeman keep having to wait for Brad to figure out that this was a murder, which shows that he doesn’t know much.  A bucket full of vomit has been put under to table, which shows that the killer obviously made him eat so much that he made him to be sick, which shows the hatred that the killer had for this monstrosity of a human being.

Morgan tells Brad to keep quite so he can think which shows the dominance and shows that he almost finds him annoying. Morgan also seems toughened to do his job which shows the experience that he has as he mocks him.