Seven (1995 film)

The primary influence for the film's screenplay came from Andrew Kevin Walker's time spent in New York City while trying to make it as a screenwriter. "I didn't like my time in New York, but it's true that if I hadn't lived there I probably wouldn't have written Seven."[3] He envisioned actor William Hurt as Somerset and named the character after his favorite author, W. Somerset Maugham.[3]

Jeremiah S. Chechik was attached to direct at one point.[3] During pre-production, Al Pacino was considered for the Detective Somerset role, but he decided to do City Hall instead. Denzel Washington and Sylvester Stallone decided to turn down the role of Mills. Washington later regretted turning down the role.[4][5] Robert Duvall and Gene Hackman turned down the role of Detective Somerset. Christina Applegate turned down the role of Tracey.

The ending of the screenplay, with the head in the box, was originally part of an earlier draft that New Line had rejected, instead opting for an ending that involved more traditional elements of a detective thriller film with more action-oriented elements. But when New Line sent David Fincher the screenplay to review for his interest in the project, they accidentally sent him the original screenplay with the head-in-the-box ending. At the time, Fincher had not read a script for a year and a half since the frustrating experience of making Alien 3; he said, "I thought I'd rather die of colon cancer than do another movie".[6] Fincher eventually agreed to direct Seven because he was drawn to the script, which he found to be a "connect-the-dots movie that delivers about inhumanity. It's psychologically violent. It implies so much, not about why you did but how you did it".[6] He found it more a "meditation on evil" rather than a "police procedural".

When New Line realized that they had sent Fincher the wrong draft, the President of Production, Michael De Luca, met with Fincher and noted that there was internal pressure to retain the revised version; De Luca stated that if Fincher promised to produce the movie, they would be able to stay with the head-in-a-box ending.[7] Despite this, producer Kopelson refused to allow the film to include the head-in-a-box scene.[8] Actor Pitt joined Fincher in arguing for keeping this original scene, noting that his previous film Legends of the Fall had its emotional ending cut after negative feedback from test audiences, and refusing to do Seven unless the head-in-the-box scene remained.[9]

The film was shot over a long period of 55 days. Fincher approached making Seven like a "tiny genre movie, the kind of movie Friedkin might have made after The Exorcist." He worked with cinematographer Darius Khondji and adopted a simple approach to the camerawork, which was influenced by the television show COPS, "how the camera is in the backseat peering over people's shoulder".[6] Fincher allowed Walker on the set while filming for on-the-set rewrites.[3] According to the director, "Seven is the first time I got to carry through certain things about the camera – and about what movies are or can be".[6]

The crowded urban streets filled with noisy denizens and an oppressive rain that seems to fall without respite were integral parts of the film, as Fincher wanted to show a city that was "dirty, violent, polluted, often depressing. Visually and stylistically, that's how we wanted to portray this world. Everything needed to be as authentic and raw as possible." Although the city or state was never mentioned by any of the characters during the film, a sign can be seen in the background of a pizza restaurant called "New York Pizza" in which Somerset and Mills visit. The restaurant ironically is located in Hollywood, California. To this end, Fincher turned to production designer Arthur Max to create a dismal world that often eerily mirrors its inhabitants. "We created a setting that reflects the moral decay of the people in it", says Max. "Everything is falling apart, and nothing is working properly." The film's brooding, dark look was achieved through a chemical process called bleach bypass, wherein the silver in the film stock was not completely removed, which in turn deepened the dark, shadowy images in the film and increased its overall tonal quality.

The 'head in a box' ending continued to worry the studio after filming was completed. After the first cut of the film was shown to the studio, they attempted to mitigate the bleakness of the ending by replacing Mills' wife's head with that of a dog, or by not having Mills fire on John Doe. However, both Fincher and Pitt continued to fight for the original ending.[9] The final scenes of Mills being taken away and Somerset's quote from Ernest Hemingway were filmed by Fincher after initial filming was complete as a way to placate the studio (the original intention was for the film to suddenly end after Mills shot John Doe).[8]

Originally, Fincher planned the title sequence of the film to show Freeman's character buying a house in a remote country area and traveling back into the city. However, days before a test screening, they had yet to film the sequence and had no budget to do it in that time. Fincher approached Kyle Cooper to suggest a replacement. Cooper recognized the amount of money used to make John Doe's notebooks (created by Clive Piercy and John Sabel),[10] and used the sequence to display them in a slideshow set to a remix of Nine Inch Nails' "Closer". The hand-drawn credits font was used to suggest that Doe had written the credits himself.[11]

The studio liked the sequence and suggested he stay with that. Fincher instead asked Cooper to "pretend we've never met and come back and propose something else", according to Cooper.[11] Cooper came up with a more detailed version of this photographic sequence: "The idea was that this is John Doe's job: he gets up, makes his books, plans his murders, drinks his tea."[11] Fincher liked this approach, but cautioned Cooper, "Well, that would be neat, but that's kind of a 2D glimpse. Figure out a way for it to involve John Doe, to show that somewhere across town somebody is working on some really evil shit. I don't want it to be just flipping through pages, as beautiful as they are."[12] Cooper reworked the idea, working with Wayne Coe to create a storyboard for a live-action shot[10] and adding in filming along with photographs of the books, new props include film reels and additional notebooks, visual effects for the title credits, and elements inspired by Doe's behavior in the movie, such as cutting his fingertips.[11] Fincher liked this approach, and considered getting Mark Romanek, the director of the "Closer" music video, to produce the sequence, but Cooper insisted he direct it. Cooper was assisted by film editor Angus Wall and cinematographer Harris Savides in making the final title sequence.[12] The filming took two days and five further weeks to edit.[11] The credits were hand-etched onto black scratchboard and manipulated by the camera, rather than using digital effects.[10] The final sequence used a remix of "Closer" created by the band Coil.[10]

Seven was released on September 22, 1995, in 2,441 theaters where it grossed US$13.9 million on its opening weekend. It went on to gross $100.1 million in North America and $227.1 million in the rest of the world for a total of $327.3 million,[13] making Seven the seventh-highest-grossing film in 1995.[14] The film also spent 4 consecutive weeks in the top spot at the U.S. box office in 1995.

The film was well received by critics and holds an approval rating of 81% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 7.76/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "A brutal, relentlessly grimy shocker with taut performances, slick gore effects, and a haunting finale."[15] The film has a score of 65 on Metacritic based on 22 reviews.[16]

Gary Arnold, in The Washington Times, praised the cast: "The film's ace in the hole is the personal appeal generated by Mr. Freeman as the mature, cerebral cop and Mr. Pitt as the young, headstrong cop. Not that the contrast is inspired or believable in itself. What gets to you is the prowess of the co-stars as they fill out sketchy character profiles."[17] Sheila Johnston, in her review for The Independent, praised Freeman's performance: "The film belongs to Freeman and his quiet, carefully detailed portrayal of the jaded older man who learns not to give up the fight."[18] James Charisma, in a list of Spacey's greatest film performances for Paste, wrote: "Spacey’s portrayal is a perfect balancing act: John Doe is detached from the murders he commits, yet deliberate and meticulous in his execution ... Unemotional yet smug. Analytical, violent, patient, impenetrable."[19] In his review for Sight and Sound, John Wrathall wrote, "Seven has the scariest ending since George Sluizer's original The Vanishing ... and stands as the most complex and disturbing entry in the serial killer genre since Manhunter."[20] In his "Great Movies" list review, film critic Roger Ebert commented on Fincher's direction: "None of his films is darker than this one."[21]

New Line Cinema re-released Seven in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, on Christmas Day and in New York City on December 29, 1995, in an attempt to generate Academy Award nominations for Freeman, Pitt, and Fincher, which was ultimately unsuccessful.[22]

American Film Institute recognition

2003: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains

• John Doe-nominated villain