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Dom Robinson reviews

Se7en

Seven deadly sins. Seven ways to die.

Distributed by

Entertainment In Video

Seven is a disturbing, psychological thriller about a series of murders involving the seven deadly sins. As a fat man is found sat at a table, face-down in a bowl of spaghetti bolognese and several more cans of spaghetti sauce still in the cupboard, it becomes clear that this man has been fed to death. The next day another man is found dead, forced to self-multilate and his blood used to spell out the word "Greed" on the floor. Later, Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) finds the word "Gluttony" scrawled in grease at the first murder scene. Thus, the connection with the seven deadly sins is made.

Somerset asks to be reassigned to another case because this case could run on if all seven sins are involved and he only has six more days to retirement. During this time he is paired up with rookie Detective Mills (Brad Pitt), for whom he also asks reassignment as he feels Mills isn't ready for a case as strong as this. Neither are allowed to change what they're doing so proceed. As the film plays, you realise this is not one for the faint-hearted. There are a number of genuinely shocking scenes which will gross-out most people. This film is anything but conventional. The opening credits show John Doe's handiwork being created and there's something not quite right about the end credits...

Aside from the two fine leads, there's able support from Gwyneth Paltrow as Mills' fiance Tracy, still worried about whether they made the right choice moving in together and the ever-reliable R. Lee Ermey as the police captain. He is best known for his role as the demanding drill sargeant in Kubrick's classic Full Metal Jacket.

By now, the killer's identity will be known to all as the film was released in 1995, but if you watch this film not knowing this fact, do not attempt to find out. I didn't know and the actor's name is not revealed until the end credits roll. Not knowing this information allows you to watch the film as if reading a book - you put your thoughts down as to the face of the killer. All I'll say is that the actor is an accomplished man whose presence lights up any film and who has since made more of a name for himself by winning an Oscar. Obviously, I cannot mention the name of the film for which he won this award as that would give it all away.

Despite the seriousness of the film, there's time for one-liners among the cleverly-written script, mostly between Freeman and Pitt :

movie pic

Mick Jagger claimed he'd
keep on rocking forever.

This title is one of the second batch of DVD releases from Entertainment in Video, but still it suffers the same fate that some of their other titles do, namely I Know What You Did Last Summer, Evita and Spawn: Director's Cut, in that while bring presented in their original widescreen ratio, Seven being 2.35:1, none of them are anamorphically-enhanced, so even though the encoding is artifact-free, the final image could have looked a lot better. Note that there is some shimmering of the picture during the opening murder discovery.

The average bitrate is a very good 7.33Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 9Mb/s.

The music score is well-composed and adds tension, particularly in the closing scenes, along with an excellent and loud David Bowie track, "The Heart's Filthy Lesson". However, the sound also shares a problem with the other titles in that while being filmed with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, it's merely represented in DD2.0 which translates to Dolby Surround or ProLogic given the particular amplifier in use. I have to ask why, since Surround/Prologic-only is nothing but a backward step.

movie pic

Now showing on The Grim-Discovery Channel.

Extras :

Chapters & Trailer :

Seven is no comedy, but I had to laugh when I saw there's only EIGHT chapters to this DVD, most of them divided up among the deadly sins, aside from the opening and end credits. This is really appalling in anyone's book given that chapters 3 and 4 each last in excess of thirty minutes and especially since the Region 1 DVD has 38 to choose from, which is necessary as there are so many separate scenes to this film. The original theatrical trailer is also included.

Languages & Subtitles :

Just one language for this disc - English in Dolby Surround - and with subtitles in the same language, but through some fit of madness, someone has decided that during the closing scenes, the subtitles should appear onscreen long after they have been spoken. The length of time taken is enough for someone to reply and the first person to say something else ! Turn them off at 1hr 49mins as they're just offputting after that.

'Making of' featurette :

A six-minute 'making of' contains some chat from principal cast and crew members along with some behind-the-scenes shots but after you've seen it once you'll rarely go back to it.

What's missing ? : The Region 1 DVD is also non-anamorphic with bugger all in the way of extras, so what's required is an anamorphic DVD with the equivalent quality of the Criterion NTSC Laserdisc in terms of extras, containing a commentary from the director and cast members, deleted scenes, out-takes and storyboards which include an alternative ending. Not only this, but the picture was a special "silver print" made to the same standard as issued to selected cinemas. If you saw this in the cinema, you may recall the picture was excessively dark and made it hard to see what was going on compared to that on any general home entertainment release. Correctly-manufactured prints conforming to the standard also had an extra definition of clarity.

Menu :

The menu is static and silent with a dull menu that's meant to represent scrawled police notes.

On inserting the disc, you see the copyright info and the Entertainment In Video logo and then the film begins without accessing the main menu first. If you go to the menu, clicking on "Play Movie" brings up the EiV logo and then the film starts. For some reason, the EiV logo shimmers like crazy and gives you a headache if you look at it for its full duration.

On the plus side of things, we have an excellent and compelling film which must be seen in its original widescreen ratio, even though the fullscreen version was open-matte and able to see more picture top and bottom throughout most scenes in the film - apart from those with a single face-shot which were zoomed-in to fill the screen. If the only version of this film you've seen is that on BBC1, with all the language, violence and disturbing moments removed, then you haven't seen the film at all and it's a must-see.

A Special Edition Region 1 DVD is on the cards, but it's not known at this time whether it will contain an anamorphic print. In the meantime, I'd advise against purchasing this DVD unless you care little for extras, do not have a widescreen TV and have no interest in purchasing a Dolby Digital decoder. Also, why does this DVD cost two pounds more than Donnie Brasco when all it has extra is some subtitles ?

For those interested in David Fincher's other films, reviews of Alien 3 (PAL Laserdisc) and The Game (Region 2 DVD) can be found online by clicking on the title. 

FILM	 		: *****
PICTURE QUALITY 	: ***½
SOUND QUALITY		: ****
EXTRAS			: *½
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: ***½

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.

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Andy Serkis Batman Benedict Cumberbatch call of duty Calvin Harris Chris Hemsworth Dave Bautista doctor who Domhnall Gleeson doom Drake E3 2017 E3 2018 Ed Sheeran grand theft auto Grand Theft Auto V GTA gta5 gta 5 gta v Idris Elba Inside No.9 Jenna Coleman Jennifer Lawrence Jess Glynne Justin Bieber los santos Michael Fassbender Murray Gold Oscar Isaac Peter Capaldi Reece Shearsmith rockstar Sam Smith Samuel L. Jackson Scarlett Johansson Sia Stan Lee Stanley Tucci star wars Steven Moffat Steve Pemberton Taylor Swift Toby Jones Woody Harrelson

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