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Seven movie5/16/2023 ![]() Credit: AlamyĮven now, when everyone (hopefully) knows exactly what was in “that” box, it’s impossible not to admire the ugly beauty of the film’s plot. Helping Brad Pitt sidestep into ‘proper’ acting roles, and letting Morgan Freeman become the sage old mentor he’s played ever since, Seven shocked audiences at the time with its violence, its mood, and its gloriously unhappy ending. ![]() A nihilistic nightmare for the end of the century, Seven was all the anger, alienation and disillusionment of the ’90s dressed in the clothes of a good cop thriller – it was the film that Silence Of The Lambs was too scared to be. ![]() The story of two detectives chasing a serial killer who frames his murders around the seven deadly sins, it was an old-fashioned crime movie about something much bigger, and nastier. When the script for Seven came along, Fincher changed his mind. Or, as he put it at the time, “I’d rather die of colon cancer than make another movie”. Hollywood was impressed enough by his CV to let him direct Alien 3, and then freaked out enough by what he gave them to butcher it in the editing room, making him rethink his whole career. A visual effects artist turned ad man, he helped revolutionise MTV by directing music videos for the likes of George Michael (‘Freedom! 90’), Madonna (‘Vogue’) and Aerosmith (‘Janie’s Got A Gun’). And it all came so close to never happening…īack in the early ’90s, Fincher was ready to give up making movies. Still shocking despite all the years and all the many, many imitators, Seven stands as a reminder of just how dark Hollywood can get when it wants to. Influencing every cop show and crime movie since with its rusty aesthetic and body horror vibes, David Fincher’s 1995 Gen-X noir took a scalpel blade to the detective genre and opened up wounds that keep on bleeding originality today. Happy birthday Seven (or Se7en, as it is sometimes known) – 25 years old this month and still one of the bleakest and best detective movies ever made.
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