Se7en
The movie Se7en was a typical “buddy” film. We are introduced to two cops. The black cop in the movie is detective Somerset. He has been a detective for many years and plays the wise older police officer who is ready to retire from the tumultuous work of a cop. He is lonely and has no family. The only thing to keep him company is his work of solving brutal homicides. Somerset is teamed up with a new officer, detective Mills. Mills who is a young hotshot who thinks he knows all about solving crime. He also has a pregnant wife who he ends up losing because of his dangerous line of work. Mills is the cop who does not always follow the rules because he has little control of his emotions. These moments lead him to near death experiences. These feelings are also why Mills shot Joe Doe when he finds out that he killed his wife.
Unlike the other movies I did not think that this film focused on race. The reason that the two men do not get a long instantly had more to do with their difference in age and experience rather than being black and white. The two cops do learn from each other similar to the way the cops did in Beverly Hills Cop and In the Heat of the Night. Mills gains experience from Somerset in how to be a better cop. Somerset learns from Mills and his wife who brings the two men closer. Somerset cannot understand why people in the world are becoming more violent. Mills shows him that there is more to think about, like the people who care for you.
The nature of this film is much heavier then what we have seen so far. There is little humor; the men are too worried about catching psycho serial killer. This more serious movie still brought two very different men together letting them bond over the traumatic experience.
posted by Emily Wilson at 3:55 PM
4 Comments:
I guess my question would be this:
If there is a black cop and a white cop paired together and even if race is never mentioned, isn't race still there?
Isn't there an issue even if race isn't mentioned? Doesn't it become present by its absence--which is something that Guerrero talks about.
There was no racial matters, the movie was definitely focused more on the relationship between the men and how they would mesh together. They were just two detectives and nothing more. In fact Morgan Freeman was a very charming, Virgil type man. I agree that Pitt is a man driven by his emotion and that creates a problem for him. Morgan Freeman represented the calm experienced cop. These major contrast shows the evidence of major change when the two actually forge a great relationship.
Mills was almost forced to do what he had to do, there was really no way for him to get around killing Doe. It was what he had to do. Even the calm collected Somerset lost his cool in such a situation. Both of them will have to cope with such an experience that only the two of them really witnessed first hand. In a way Mills looked to Somerset for a sort of wisdom, for Somerset was even able to confuse Doe a bit in their conversation in the car, instead of just calling him insane, which is what Mills did. Calling Doe insane only made him stronger. Somerset tried to attack him logically and even had Doe fumbling slightly.
I agree with Emily that I do not think race is an issue in this movie at all. Obviously, race is still going to be there whether or not it is talked about, that is just a fact of life. I would, however, like to believe that the fact that it is not brought up is more an example that our world has come a long way in the matter of racism rather than believing that it is an issue because it is not mentioned. I would like to believe that a black man and a white man can be paired together as cops and it be viewed as two cops rather than a white cop and a black cop, maybe this will never be the case though.
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