Notes from Maine - 2024/02/25
I watched Se7en again last night (David Fincher movie from 1995). According to British GQ, it’s Fincher’s 3rd best movie (behind Fight Club and Zodiac). The movie was originally titled “Seven” but I’ve that it shifted to “Se7en” when Kyle Cooper substituted the number for the V in the title sequence. I’ve always enjoyed the movie, but my perception of it has shifted a little.
By the way, I would apologize for spoilers, but since the movie is almost thirty years old it’s illegal for me to claim to have spoiled it.
When I was watching this time, I was focused on the contrast between enthusiasm and apathy. Morgan Freeman is a weathered, tested expert. He has been solving cases for decades, refined his method, and then reflected on it enough that he can communicate his process with a few simple lessons. He would be the ideal teacher except for the issue that he has discovered that the whole endeavor is wasted effort. It doesn’t matter if they catch the killer—another one will fill his place and the world will never notice.
Brad Pitt is the worst possible student. He is convinced of his own superiority, desperate to prove that he has a wealth of experience and knowledge, and too naive to recognize true wisdom when it is handed to him. Until the last scene Pitt refuses to listen to reason even though Freeman has proven himself to be correct every single time.
The only asset that Pitt brings to the table is the one thing that Freeman lacks—enthusiasm. Pitt has stupid, naive, endless enthusiasm for finding and catching the killer regardless of risk. Earlier, Freeman claims that he has no regrets about unclosed cases from his past because he has taken those cases as far as was humanly possible. But when Pitt breaks the law and kick’s in Doe’s door, it makes me believe that Freeman was wrong. He didn’t take those unclosed cases as far as he could because he was always too pragmatic. He knew that breaking down a door without probable cause would require him to break another law (paying for false witness testimony). He had lost his youthful enthusiasm to close his cases regardless of the cost to his own sense of morality. Pitt had a quality that maybe Freeman never possessed. It doesn’t make Pitt a better detective. We learn that too much enthusiasm is the path to early burnout. If Freeman was more like Pitt, he might have taken cases farther but the cost would have been an early end to his career.
When the movie came out, I was convinced that Pitt’s acting was ridiculous next to Freeman and Spacey. Morgan Freeman conveys so much with just a subtle movement of his eyebrows. It’s astounding how much emotion Freeman is able to portray without saying a word. Pitt’s acting has zero subtlety. You don’t get the chance to wonder what he’s feeling before he’s hammering it home with another movement, gesture, or contortion. He’s laughing at his own jokes (metaphorically) to let us know that he’s being funny. The script doesn’t help his character. Pitt’s character has so much unanswered dialog that it sounds like he’s trying to narrate himself. I don’t think we can blame that on Brad Pitt though—I don’t think a lot of the movie was improvised.
When I watched the movie this time, I was able to reconsider Pitt’s acting. I now believe that he does a pretty decent job with it. In the past, I wasn’t considering how eager his character is supposed to be. Next to Freeman, he hardly seems like a real person. Pitt is too big, loud, and unrestrained, but now I’ve encountered people like that in real life. They exist, so it’s not absurd to believe that Pitt is doing a credible job portraying a person like that.
For the first time, I felt real sympathy for Pitt in those final moments. I guess I always empathized more with Freeman in the past. Morgan was jaded and pessimistic, waiting for the rest of the world to catch up with his deductions so he could finally exhale. Pitt was so headstrong and dumb, willing to bash his head against the wall again and again, thinking that he might actually break through this time, against all evidence.
I wonder why my perspective has shifted. Why is dumb optimism more resonant to me now that I’m thirty years older than when I first saw this movie?
