Wednesday, January 09, 2008

The world is only worth fighting for....Se7en

In some ways Se7en is similar to yesterday’s In the Heat of the Night. It involved a gripping murder mystery that led two cops, Mills and Somerset, on a journey to find out something within them that they did not know before. For Mills it was the realization that his job has affected, in the worst way possible, everything he will ever know. For Somerset it was the epiphany that maybe he did take pride in his work, that he did enjoy the chase and no longer sees his job as another routine procedure. I think that Mills’ initial feelings of accomplishment and fulfillment were indeed passed on to Somerset through the course of the movie but the final act of murder broke him and his spirit to see the good in anything. His final words, though quite out of place in the ending of the film, were telling of this change: “Ernest Hemingway once wrote, ‘The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.’ I agree with the second part.”

However, I find the subject of race, one of our most important discussion points, completely absent from this film. I can’t remember one part in the film were a racial slur was exchanged or a joking remark said….Which baffles me completely…why did we watch this movie? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it and it was the best movie I’ve seen so far in this class (almost tops ITHOTN), however it seems to confuse the purpose of the class. Although I find the juxtaposition of the older, intelligent and more experienced Somerset doubting the young and impulsive Mills and the Chief and Tibbs in ITHOTN an interesting flip flop. The black man is looking down on the white man in both films but there is a separation of ideals and emotions at the end of Se7en, not a coming together as in ITHOTN. I see many of the genre staples of the Buddy cop film, there is certainly plenty of that in this movie but I feel the race issue would have been interesting to see played out in the movie. I half expected Mills to turn and kill Somerset after he realizes he knew of his wife’s pregnancy with Joe Doe but that would not have fulfilled his prophecy. I did like this film however I feel the biracial in the buddy cop film was virtually absent.

2 Comments:

Blogger MegSchutz said...

I think that maybe the lack of racism in Se7en made it a good movie to watch, a reminder that just because a white man and a black man are working together doesn't mean there will be racist slurs.

9:00 AM  
Blogger Vladigogo said...

Does the fact that race not enter into the picture mean that we have come a long way from ITHOTN? Or is it the fact that Morgan Freeman is not really seen as a "black" actor?

9:13 AM  

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