One movie which deserves special attention is Se7en (1995). Jodie Foster described it as "about as close to a perfect film on the topic as I can think of". Dark, unremittingly pessimistic, with a plausible, reasonable, honest, empathic killer at its core, this is a masterpiece.

Set against the perpetually rainsoaked backdrop of an un-named modern city, David Fincher (best known at this stage for directing some Madonna videos and the disastrous Alien3) presents us with a narrative that, at first glance, seems straight out of the "young cop-old cop" buddy movie textbook. Morgan Freeman is Somerset, the quintessential middle-aged cop who is about to retire, in this case counting down seven, yes that's se7en, more days on the force. Brad Pitt is the equally quintessential David Mills, young, hot-headed, with beautiful wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow) in tow. It seems easy to second-guess the script from here on in - initially the two cops clash, but are brought together by a common goal, and grudgingly gain admiration for each others' working methods. We can confidently predict some sort of showdown with an as yet unseen anatagonist, in which the two cops need to depend on each other for survival. Se7en provides us with all this, but it twists the conventions in such a way as to be breathtaking.

Structurally, Andrew Kevin Walker's script entwines itself around the number 7; 7 days for Somerset to survive, 7 victims for our killer to provide, 7 deadly sins for Mills to identify, key events on the hour of 7 - the symmetrical world of horror fiction. Yet Walker confounds his own conventions, handing his killer over after just FIVE murders. That killer is John Doe; small, subdued, seemingly incapable of atrocity, but speaking for the dark heart in all of us with his extensive speech in the back of the police car:

We see a deadly sin on every street corner, in every home, and we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it's common, it's trival. We tolerate it morning, noon, and night. Well, not anymore. I'm setting the example. And what I've done is going to be puzzled over, and studied, and followed... forever.

It can be argued that Doe does not commit the murders himself, he merely facilitates them, the Lust crime in particular. He takes the sin that is in people and skewers them on it - if they did not sin they would not die. John Doe is Everyman, that figure of reason straight out of medieval literature. He is us and we are him; the convergence of antagonist and audience, the ultimate voyeuristic thrill.

Further Reading

• http://www.deep-focus.com/flicker/se7en.html
• http://www.spacey.com/seven.htm
• http://www.se7enmovie.com/ - homepage in honour of DVD re-release
• read the screenplay here
• Go through the murders with Se7en-cult