Tuesday, January 08, 2008

More Cop, Less Buddy

Se7en was a very morbid buddy cop movie. It did have some very common elements of the genre. It had two very different cops working together on a team, it had a potentially dramatic situation for the cops to work together, and it had the action that Buddy cop movies require. However in this Movie, it was much like a horror movie filled with suspense and shock. I had never seen this move before and the ending was quite a shocker to me. Morgan Freeman normally plays a very calm and wise character, and Detective Somerset was no different. However what was very different about Somerset was how shaken he got at the very end. When he saw what was in the package, he instantly became very shaken and seemed to just give up. He threw down his gun and admitted that John Doe had the clear advantage and that he had clearly won. He tried to not let Detective Mills do anything too rash but even he himself was so shaken that he really couldn’t give Mills a good reason not to kill Doe. The knowledge that Somerset had that Tracy was pregnant caused him to empathize with what Mills would feel to such a degree, that he really could not blame Mills for killing Doe.

Mills and Somerset had a pretty rocky beginning with each other. But like all buddy cop Movies they eventually get along and work together. Somerset was the calm cool and collected cop, while Mills was a very brash and rattled man. Somerset is very well read, as he visits the Library often, while Mills is forced to read the cliff notes of the classic books, because he is too lazy to read. The biblical references add a very serious tone to the movie, which takes away from its buddy Cop Image. The word “buddy” implies a sort of comedic element to the genre and mostly shows up in movies such as Beverly Hills Cop, Bad Boys, Lethal Weapon, and even Kindergarten Cop. Movies like Se7en are really more like Police Thrillers than Buddy Cop movies.

5 Comments:

Blogger Vladigogo said...

But doesn't the film have the elements listed on the board today much more so that IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT?

Is it too limiting to merely define Buddy Cop Films through the use of humor? Can that only be one of the elements?

7:04 PM  
Blogger Brad T said...

It was an interesting choice by the filmmakers to include not one, but two instances in which Mills refuses to listen to Somerset’s reason and acts brashly. Ultimately, did Mills play a major role in the investigation? Did he do anything that Somerset couldn’t or didn’t do better? Mills had more to lose, as was seen at the end, and less control over his emotions.
I also agree that the film as a whole doesn’t read like a “buddy cop” flick. If anything, its two parts thriller and one part buddy cop. In “Beverly Hills Cop,” the focus was on Axel Foley and his antics, with some emphasis on him solving the case. In “Se7en,” much of the focus was the case itself.

8:26 PM  
Blogger Christina said...

I agree with the professor about the whole humor part - when I first started this class I figured that all buddy cop films would be humorous and light hearted. But with the past couple of movies it seems like maybe that isn't true. Is it because times have changed? People today don't want something so serious and instead have to have comedy so it catches their attention? Or maybe it needs to just have to have some type of overwhelming feeling, whether it be humorous or suspense and fear? It seemed like "In the Heat of the Night" I wasn't really seating at the edge of my seat in suspense, nor was I laughing hysterically. Why has it changed? Why does the audience need something different?

9:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Se7en did differ a lot from the other buddy cops movie in that it wasn’t comedic or light like the other films we have watched. Everything from the lighting, music, and character backgrounds seemed very dark. Also, because the other cop movies were more humorous, with the exception of In the Heat of the Night, they seemed less realistic. By setting the plot in the city and filming it in a more “real” way, the crimes and events that happen seemed more realistic.

10:51 PM  
Blogger Alexandria Vazquez said...

I agree that this movie has many more of the elements of a horror film than that of a true buddy cop film. However, there are some scenes of humor, such as the vibrating apartment and the wisecracks that Mills has to say throughout the film. These instances of lightheartedness do not at all lend to the film a general feeling of comedy that was found in Lethal Weapon or Beverly Hills Cop. Given the extreme nature of the crimes I found the morbid nature of the film to lend itself well to the action and plots-twists.

12:27 AM  

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