Se7en on DVD - DVDfever.co.uk

Sevenis a disturbing, psychological thriller about a series of murders involving the sevendeadly sins. As a fat man is found sat at a table, face-down in a bowl of spaghettibolognese and several more cans of spaghetti sauce still in the cupboard, it becomesclear 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 connectionwith the seven deadly sins is made.

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

Aside from the two fine leads, there’s able support from Gwyneth Paltrow asMills’ fiance Tracy, still worried about whether they made the right choice movingin together and the ever-reliable R. Lee Ermey as the police captain. He isbest known for his role as the demanding drill sargeant in Kubrick’s classic FullMetal 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’tknow and the actor’s name is not revealed until the end credits roll. Not knowing thisinformation allows you to watch the film as if reading a book – you put your thoughtsdown as to the face of the killer. All I’ll say is that the actor is an accomplishedman whose presence lights up any film and who has since made more of a name for himselfby winning an Oscar. Obviously, I cannot mention the name of the film for which he wonthis award as that would give it all away.

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

“This guy’s methodical, exacting and worst of all, patient”

“He’s a nut-bag. Just because the fucker’s got a library card, doesn’t makehim Yoda.”

Mick Jagger claimed he’d
keep on rocking forever.

This title is one of the second batch of DVD releases from Entertainment in Video, butstill it suffers the same fate that some of their other titles do, namelyI Know What You Did Last Summer,Evitaand Spawn: Director’s Cut,in that while bring presented in their original widescreen ratio, Seven being 2.35:1, none ofthem are anamorphically-enhanced, so even though the encoding is artifact-free, the finalimage could have looked a lot better. Note that there is some shimmering of the pictureduring 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 closingscenes, along with an excellent and loud David Bowie track, “The Heart’sFilthy Lesson”. However, the sound also shares a problem with the other titlesin that while being filmed with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, it’s merely representedin DD2.0 which translates to Dolby Surround or ProLogic given the particular amplifierin use. I have to ask why, since Surround/Prologic-only is nothing but a backwardstep.

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 chaptersto this DVD, most of them divided up among the deadly sins, aside from the openingand end credits. This is really appalling in anyone’s book given that chapters 3 and4 each last in excess of thirty minutes and especially since the Region 1 DVD has38 to choose from, which is necessary as there are so many separate scenes to thisfilm. The original theatrical trailer is also included. Languages & Subtitles :Just one language for this disc – English in Dolby Surround – and with subtitlesin the same language, but through some fit of madness, someone has decided thatduring the closing scenes, the subtitles should appear onscreen long after theyhave been spoken. The length of time taken is enough for someone to reply and thefirst person to say something else ! Turn them off at 1hr 49mins as they’re justoffputting after that. ‘Making of’ featurette :A six-minute ‘making of’ contains some chat from principal cast and crew membersalong with some behind-the-scenes shots but after you’ve seen it once you’llrarely go back to it.

What’s missing ? : The Region 1 DVD is also non-anamorphic with bugger allin the way of extras, so what’s required is an anamorphic DVD with the equivalentquality of the Criterion NTSC Laserdisc in terms of extras, containing a commentaryfrom the director and cast members, deleted scenes, out-takes and storyboards whichinclude an alternative ending. Not only this, but the picture was a special “silverprint” made to the same standard as issued to selected cinemas. If you saw this inthe cinema, you may recall the picture was excessively dark and made it hard to seewhat was going on compared to that on any general home entertainment release.Correctly-manufactured prints conforming to the standard also had an extradefinition of clarity.

Menu :

The menu is static and silent with a dull menu that’s meant to represent scrawledpolice notes.

On inserting the disc, you see the copyright info and the Entertainment In Videologo and then the film begins without accessing the main menu first. If you go tothe 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 lookat it for its full duration.

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

A Special Edition Region 1 DVD is on the cards, but it’s not known at this time whetherit will contain an anamorphic print. In the meantime, I’d advise against purchasingthis DVD unless you care little for extras, do not have a widescreen TV and have nointerest in purchasing a Dolby Digital decoder. Also, why does this DVD costtwo pounds more thanDonnie Brascowhen all it has extra is some subtitles ?

For those interested in David Fincher‘s other films, reviews ofAlien 3 (PAL Laserdisc)andThe Game (Region 2 DVD)can be found online by clicking on the title.

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

[Up to the top of this page]

Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

DVDfever.co.uk

Follow DVDfever.co.uk