7

I thought that this was a good movie, but with one exception. The ending. I'll give the killer the benefit of the doubt and say that he could be relatively sure that the cop would kill him when he found out that his wife was dead, but then what did he expect to happen to Mills? Everyone who was accused by the killer of committing one of the seven deadly sins was killed, with the exception of Sloth. Though it could be argued that he won't ever be able to truly function as a human being ever again. Mills living just doesn't seem to fit.

Anyways, on to the inclusion or exclusion of racism in SE7EN. I didn't really note any particular amount of racism. In fact I would go so far as to say that its possible that whoever made the movie purposefully avoided it. Mogan Freeman's character, Det. Somerset was accepted without a second thought by both Mills and Mills' wife. Even though she, Mill's wife, barely knows Det. Somerset she still tells him things that she hasn't even told her husband.

As far as cop stereotypes go, I would say that they were definately prevalent in the film. The older, smarter, slightly jaded hero with the young hotshot (and hot headed) sidekick/partner. The sidekick/partner looks to Somerset for acceptance and recognition and early in the movie finds neither. Later on in the movie as Mills earns some respect from Somerset (albeit by cheating and reading Cliff's Notes) he is finally able to gain at least some respect. How much of that respect he loses when he executes the killer is unknown.

Finally, I like how the killer "wins". There are too many archetypal movies where the hero gets a flesh wound and the vilain dies in some sort of large explosion. This movie dared to be different, though the ending left me wanting to know what happened with Mills. My vote would be that a jury lets him off the hook completely ala "A Time to Kill" but then that would still fulfill the archetype... maybe thats why the viewer gets to draw his own conclusions.
-Gordon Kirsch