What We Consider Trivial
The events of the film Se7en directed by David Fincher, staring; Morgan Freeman as Somerset, and Brad Pitt as Mills.
Detectives Mills and Somerset are the lead investigators fallowing a string of cruel yet perversely innovative murders, set to the theme of the seven deadly sins. The sentencing of punishment upon the victims, where befitting to which one of the particular seven deadly sins the victim was guilty of committing: Greed, gluttony, pride, envy, wrath, lust, and sloth. A metaphor playing off of the Divine Comedy by Dante, who explains the horrors of hell as seven distinct levels. Each levels punishment is fitting to one of the different seven sins. Fallowing the allegory of the “every-man”, or general/fundamental human, the role played by Kevin Spacey, as the “enlightened” character John Doe.
John Doe a humble virtuous man, is able to see the world he lives in for what it is, from a location of hindsight. John Does particular point of view, makes the true nature of the world and humans apparent to him. John sees life as a “game”, if you will, with two player the individual and reality. For a game to have order it must have rules the constitute the particular stipulations of that instance in the game. The game of life can be won or lost based on how someone responds to these rules, either to a maximum or a minimal way. John Doe is aware of this construct because he is detached from what blind the rest of us, identify and attachment.
Films such as the Saw franchise relay on shock value, to force their audience to feel only the physical pain of the actor. Unlike the Saw films, Se7en, relies more on subtleties and implication, rather than base violence. Se7en leads there viewer to a general feeling or idea, the rest of which, the audience member must achieved only by suffering along with the victim.
Se7en taking the point of view, of Mills and Somerset. The shocking evidence and crimes senses, that Mills and Somerset uncover, set the stage for the audience to use their own imaginations, to put together the horror that the victims went through. Given only the frame work of the crimes. Forces the audience to come from a far more personal place, to understand fully the severity of the situation and feel the physical pain and mental distress the victim must have felt. The viewer has to empathize with the victim for the true nature of the crime to be understood, in all of its detail. The lack of blatant violence, in the presence of heavily implied violence, prompts a viewer to engage more fully in the film. The viewers are looking for, wanting, any validation in their feelings as a means of relief, from the implication the film creates, but never delivers on. The “wanting” feeling that is felt results in a deeper connection and engage more with the events of the film. Making the audience member fall deeper into, despair, and uncertainty of who is behind all of this.
The mood of Se7en is meant to create a feeling of despair, fear and ignorance; a place lacking in virtue. The general setting of the film takes place in some unknown city, in a state of perpetual rain. Putting a haze into the atmosphere, blunting the colors making the film dull and depressing.
The same feelings that people in hell would feel living in a world of their own creating, just like the city and our lives are worlds of our creation. A place lacking in satisfaction, compaction, and true understanding of humanity.
The hedonistic and egocentric values, that maximize the individual over the greater good of the whole, that the vitamins in the film hold so dear, turned out to be their undoing. the same down fall shared with those people sent to hell. Rather than having, what John Doe considers a proper relationship to the world as one given human life. A relationship that requires one to come to a level of self-awareness, an awareness that become universal when people see that there intrinsic value is the same as everyone else. Rather the victims choose ignorance, finding pleasure in the guaranty that is the physical world. A “good” that is indistinguishable from animalistic drive.
I believe that when people die they are able to look back at their lives from this place of hindsight, where you become fully aware of you true human nature as the physical world slips way. This hindsight point of view people take is the judgment of God. There is no benevolent being separate from you, god in this case is the fundamental human essence with its aware of its self the “actual truth” that is so difficult to accept. To accept the truth is to have faith. Rejecting the fallacy that is easy and a given is the leap needed that people are scared to take. The higher human potential that we are all capable of at any time in our life, which we use to decide, when we die, if we lived a life properly relative to reality.
