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 Seven
DVD Review by Paul Trombley, M.D |
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An obese man, found dead, face-down in a plate of spaghetti: a strange murder
that unites an all-too-seasoned old detective who is on his way into retirement and his
young and capable-yet-green replacement. A uniting of two powerful performances, one from the magnificently noble Morgan Freeman, the other by the hit-or-miss Brad Pitt, all under the masterful direction and artistic eye of newcomer director David Fincher. Though only his second commercial movie, Fincher brilliantly crafts this amazing and uniquely dark tale of sin and murder. Though one and the same, in "Seven", the sin is of a more moralistic and philosophic nature while the murders are the vehicle to call attention to the sin. The Seven Deadly Sins, to be exact: the parables of old warned about by Dante, More, Chaucer, and countless sermons. Add to this mix, yet another incredible performance by Kevin Spacey as the antagonist behind these crimes AND the most believable and LOGICAL NON-HOLLYWOOD ending and you've got a film that is sure to be a classic. The story is rich and complex, and is revealing in both human nature and philosophy as well as in twists. To this end, only the most simple overview of the plot should be disclosed. In brief, the film is a study in human natures and motivations, all being played out in the context of a very grisly set of moral murders and the investigation and apprehension of the killer. The background material (as mentioned) is that of the seven deadly sins, which effectively sets the stage of this modern tragedy. In fact, I was mostly impressed by the way that this movie almost stands as a contemporary tragedy in the tradition of the ancient Greek tragedies, which take human foibles and flaws and exploit them in the downfall of the characters. Incredibly, this story does just that, all the while really provoking further thought from the viewer over complex issues of morality and the concept of sin in the context of this modern world. Having said all of that, suffice it to say that the DVD release of this movie is a must have to any library. The video quality of this title is incredible! The length of this film is over 130 mins, and was (wisely) split up between the two sides of the DVD disc. This allowed for lesser compression and much better video quality than is seen in some more constrained titles which push the edge of capacity and thus cause artifacts. Of course, this does mean the viewer must get up and physically flip the disc, but it is a small price to pay. For one moment, on the second side, I thought I had finally come up against the pixels and other flaw artifacts that others have noted on DVD's, and which I have never yet found on any of my titles (please check out the discussion on this topic)! However, as the picture began to skip and pause and the images began to fragment, I pulled the disc out and found it was due to marks and some fine filament that had fallen onto the disc. The video resumed crisply as normal and no further flaws were noted upon cleaning and re-playing. Now, I would also add at this point that New Line wisely transferred this DVD video from the best stock available, and that they have kudos for that. To explain: "Seven" has a dark and almost unearthly look throughout for a reason. The original film was released into the theaters with 2000 specially made prints, distributed to select large venues. These 2000 prints were made by silver nitrate impregnation of the film stock, which gives this oddly dark effect. The rest of the theaters were distributed standard, untreated prints, which appear lighter and less "etherial". In home video release, only the Criterion special boxed collector's edition LD is a transfer of the special silver print. Having seen this and compared to the DVD, it VERY much appears that the transfer is from a silver print (or the silver-transferred LD). This really helps to maintain the overall integrity of the director's vision. The audio is 5.1 channel Dolby Digital. Overall, the audio is great, as one would expect. However, I noticed at least 3 brief audio dropouts throughout the film. These I have not noticed in viewing the LD. Otherwise, the audio is flawless. As for extras, included on the disc are extensive bios on the cast and on the young director Fincher. Interestingly, it is as up-to-date as including Fincher's latest film "The Game". It also features a choice of subtitle languages and of audio dubbings. Unfortunately, it is in the extras where the DVD also falls a bit short. The disc (given the 2-sided nature of the film transfer) has ample room for extra material, and there are plenty of extras that exist for the film, as they are included in the box LD set. There are many deleted scenes of interest, including a couple of more character-revealing insights into the Morgan Freeman character. There is also a storyboard of the first ending (apparently never shot) for the film (trust me, Fincher picked a MUCH better way to end the film). For one reason or another, these were not included. I have begun to wonder if it is to help appease the LD customer who may've spent hundreds of dollars on a special boxed edition to get these gems. However, to the contrary, there are many DVD's which DO include all of the extras found on some LD's, and even some DVD's that go BEYOND that which is included on the LD version (like Altman's "The Player", which contains a host of extras). Overall, this disc is incredible. It is clearly worth adding to any library of movies, and is likely to be watched again and again. The payoff? Each time one views this movie, more subtle details present and make the overall experience even more rich and thought-provoking. Pick this one up!
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Seven The story is rich and complex, and is revealing in both human nature and philosophy as well as in twists. Staring: Brad Pitt Directed By: David Fincher Running time: 127 min
Bonus Materials
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