Analyzing Evil: Kevin Spacey

Fun fact about the Sloth death, the actor playing the SWAT cop who leans in to check on the guy didn't know it was an actual actor, he thought it was just a dummy. So his frightened reaction was real.

I'm intrigued by the fact that John Doe rode a taxi to the police station. He was covered in blood, on both his clothes and his hands, and yet he was able to to take a taxi to his destination. I wonder if this was intended to reinforce how apathy had overtaken the city.

John Doe is able to get a severed head delivered on Sunday while covered in blood without the cops being called on him. Truly impressive.

Never has a villain with so little screen time made such an impact

Brad Pitt's acting in the last scene is mind blowing. You can see his character's struggle unfold from his futile attempt to not succumb to his need for vengeance through to it's violent fruition. Very well written and directed too. Once he sees his dead wife's face in his mind's eye we all know he's lost the struggle even before he fires the first shot.

I find this quote by Friedrich Nietzsche so fitting for Jon Doe. "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

I always liked that scene when John walks into the police station and has to YELL for Mills to notice him. Also, despite having blood clearly on him, no one notices him, no one offers to help him, ask if he's ok...

1. Gluttony - temperance
2. Greed - Charity
3. Sloth - diligent
4. Lust - chastity
5. Pride - humility
6. Wrath - Patience
7. Envy - gratitude

John Doe sees Brad Pitt's character as the innocent in "of human bondage." He is envious of the idealism of the young detective. Morgan Freeman represents realism to him, thus Freeman/Somerset does need to be punished.

14:25 -15:05
Fun Fact: Director David Fincher actually found someone, who somehow took the time, beforehand, to write many of those notebooks, just to be seen for mere seconds in the movie and have a credit moment for themselves in the end credits. And if you look carefully at some of those pages, the person clearly put in a lot of detail.

I've always wondered why John Doe hid his note behind the glutton's fridge. He obviously wanted the police to find it, but it seems like almost blind luck that the coroner not only found the floor scrapings, but thought to refer them to Somerset, who then connected them to the fridge. I don't think there was anything like the wife's picture from the Greed scene pointing them where to look.
  Also, I wish Se7en had gotten its alternate ending, where Somerset kills Doe for Mills. Doe targeted people who carried their sin in secret: the glutton was a shut-in, the lawyer was working late, the pederast was laying low to avoid the cops, the john was meeting in an anonymous sex club, and the egotistical model isolated herself in her final hours. I think he saw sin as something that cuts people off from not only God, but from each other. His plan assumed that when Mills family was taken away, he'd have nothing left, would be all alone, and couldn't bear to stay his hand. But having Somerset step in at the last minute would have been an affirmation of the core tenet of Catholic philosophy, which I think Doe completely misses; that someone else can step in and make the sacrifice for you. Somerset would be giving up a stellar, unblemished career and cozy retirement for a potential prison term to give Mills another chance. I respect the ending we got, but getting to see John Doe's plan come undone in the final act would have been immensely satisfying.

Quality film Se7en.  Still feels pretty fresh 25 years later (unlike that 'Sloth' guy chained to the bed).

Fun fact : Brad Pitt had genuinely broken his arm plus other injuries on the set while trying to do a risky scene.

John Doe is in the top 3 of most evil characters ever in cinema. Worst yet, he wins. This movie traumatized me back then. Yet I still feel Seven is a film everyone should see. One watching wasn't enough for me.

The scariest part about John Doe is that in his own mind he is not Evil but a Vigilante who is willing to accept punishment for what hes done

I mean the fact God himself was one of the detectives trying to stop John Doe tells us that John Doe was not doing the Lord's work.

I don't think I've ever seen a more fitting representation of Purgotory than Se7en's city. A nameless sluggish hellhole where nothing is ever completed, and nobody is ever satisfied, where light and good is drowned out and passion and ascension cannot exist

One of the most interesting things about John Doe? In this film, you don't know who he is. You don't see Kevin Spacey's name in the opening credits and didn't know he was in the film until he shows up soaked in blood at the police station. About that, I read that the blood was supposed to be that of Mills's wife. This video today was brilliant- thank you!

I feel like we need an episode on Gustavo Fring