Seven Characters for Seven Sins of the Modern Society - Movie Review Example

? Se7en Characters for Seven Sins of the Modern Society Hollywood no longer lingers in the light, cheerful and funny atmosphere of the 1950s musical movies , shot by directors like Stanley Donen and prefers darker, gloomier settings like David Fincher’s 1995 production “Seven”, which has no similarities with “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” except its title. Indeed, Fincher’s “Seven” is much closer to film noir of the 1940s-1950s and neo-noir of the 1970s with its low-key lighting and cynical characters. While the shades of brown, dark yellow and green darken the mood throughout the film, constant rain further contributes to the gloom of this sin-city. However, “Seven” does not offer just a horrific setting and a crime puzzle, but also delves into the “heart of impenetrable darkness” buried in human souls with its biblical and literary allusions. Film critics often said that seven characters in the movie correspond to seven deadly sins. David Fincher creates a horrific world which represents a microcosm of real world, and every character in the movie represents a different attitude of modern society. Hence, each character represents a sin of contemporary society. The aim of this paper is to scrutinize the links between the seven movie characters and the seven deadly aspects of modern mass culture: gluttony, greed, wrath, envy, sloth, pride and lust The film starts with gluttony and the first victim is an obese man, who was forced by John Doe to feed himself to death. It is striking that sins and types of punishment are closely related as it is exemplified in the death of the obese man. Andrew James Johnston notes that “the murders adhere to Dantean principle of contrapasso, according to which a punishment must resemble the sin for which it is inflicted” (6). Although the plot alludes to Dante and Chaucer as the sources of the concept of seven deadly sins in a medieval fashion, somehow, it is still rooted in American way (24). Indeed, obesity is a morbid health problem threatening millions of Americans including children and adolescents. According to the National Health and Examination Survey “About one-third of U.S. adults (33.8%) are obese. Approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese.” (http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.htm). In this sense, the obese man in the film represents about one-third of U.S. adults and reminds that how overindulgence in food could be detrimental and even morbid. Fincher’s everyman “John Doe” pushes the gluttony to its utmost limits to show the dark side of insatiable hunger, which affects millions of people. By using the obese men as a character, Fincher portrays the insatiable and unrestricted hunger of the modern consumer society. The second victim, a rich lawyer called Eli Gould, also suffers from excessive love; he represents people’s greed and obsession with money in contemporary capitalist societies. The office of murdered lawyer reflects the atmosphere of cold, calculating rationality of business world, with its modernist decoration e.g. abstract paintings, Marcel Breuer Chairs, Le Courbusier Settees. Eli Gould is characterized as a very ambitious attorney who had helped a pedophile to escape conviction for the rape. John Doe punishes the sin of Gould by making him bleed to death. Besides greed, Gould also represents decaying justice system of the society, which allows child rapists to become free. Although Victor escapes the justice system with the help of Gould, he becomes the “Sloth” victim of John Doe. As Hill and Smith notes “sloth is derived from Latin acadia meaning ‘without care’” and it also denotes apathy and lack of feeling (14). John Doe punishes Victor’s apathy by tying him to a bed. His literal immobility, or what Summerset calls as his “forced contrition”, represents the idleness of a “sloth”. Furthermore, Victor, embodies uncaring, “minding your own business” attitude of everyman which Doe protests at the end of the movie while he proclaims “there is a deadly sin on every street corner, and we tolerate it.” He also criticizes the lack of social intervention. As Lyman notes “emotionally and cognitively, the evil of Sloth finds [its] expression in a lack of feeling for the world, for the people in it, or for the self” (14). Fourthly, John Doe, punishes a young prostitute, Cat Mueller, for her engagement in sexual industry and she becomes the victim of “Lust”. Doe forces a man to rape and kill the girl with a strap-on steel bladed device. Here, sexuality is considered as a symbol of moral decay in the society. However, it is not clear why a prostitute is chosen to represent lust; since she works for money rather than lust. In that sense, she does not embody lust, but in Fincher’s pessimistic worldview; she exemplifies the promiscuous attitude of the modern society. John Doe’s fifth victim, a model named Heidi Schanz, shows modern society’s obsession with beauty and represents “pride”. In fact, she is the only victim that Doe gives a chance to live. Doe clearly knows that her obsession with beauty is so strong that she would even choose death over being ugly. Indeed, after Doe cuts her nose, Schanz chooses committing suicide instead of asking for help. Her decision reveals that obsession with beauty is even stronger than fear of death. In fact, John Doe, stretches the sins of victims to the farthest ends in order to show the detrimental consequences of the human weaknesses. The first victim eats too much that he falls victim of his own hunger, the lawyer becomes so greedy that he sheds his own blood, the sloth forced to be so immobile to the extent he becomes a living corpse, the model who is extremely obsessed with her own beauty chooses to kill herself. By using the model as a victim of her own vanity, Fincher criticizes the modern society’s narcissistic involvement with appearances. At the end of the film, Fincher twists the narrative as John Doe confesses his crimes and reveals his own sin, which is “envy”. We learn that he envied the detective Mills’ ordinary and happy life with her wife and decapitated Mill’s wife. Doe confesses that: “I envied your normal life, it seems envy is my sin”. By this way, he manipulates Mills to kill him while trying to shoot two birds with one stone. While he tries to incur Mills’ “wrath”, he also aims to punish himself for his sin. Doe, actually commits a suicide at the height of his criminal activities. Somerset warns Mills to not fall into his trap and tells him“If you kill him, he’ll win”. Despite Somerset’s warning, Mills falls into Doe’s trap and commits the sin of “wrath” by killing him. At this point, Fincher perplexes the audience, who identified themselves with Mills throughout the film. In a highly pessimistic and bleak fashion, Fincher makes the audience realize that everybody has a dark side waiting to be awakened, since the audience also felt the same wrath against Doe, who had killed Mills’ wife and baby. To sum up, in “Seven”, David Fincher portrays a bleak picture of contemporary society. He criticizes the mass consumer culture by using his seven characters as the representatives of different social groups with different human weaknesses. No matter rich or poor, ugly or pretty, ordinary or genius, everybody gets their share of his acrimonious criticism. While he reveals modern society’s excessive preoccupation with food, wealth, beauty, sex and other people’s happiness; he also condemns modern society’s deepening apathy and loss of feelings. At the end of the movie, Fincher also tries to stimulate the audience and arouse feelings of empathy for the very human weaknesses. Works Cited Fincher, David. “Seven”. 1995. Johnston, Andrew James. “Filmin the Seven Deadly Sins: Chaucer, Hollywood and Postmodern Middle Ages”. Riddles, knights, and cross-dressing saints: essays on medieval English. Ed. Thomas Honegger. Bern: Peter Lang, 2004. Print. National Health and Examination Survey. (http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.htm. Accessed October 20, 2011. Web. Read More