When I first saw this film, I honestly thought it was great. But after watching it a few more times, I began to dislike certain things about it. And while I still think it’s a good movie, I now believe that if certain things had been changed, it would have been much better. My biggest criticism has to do with the ending. To explain this, however, I’m going to have to reveal what happens in the conclusion. So for those of you who have not seen this film yet and want to, I strongly recommend that you not proceed any further or else the ending will be spoiled.
For those of you who have, here’s my problem. Clearly, this movie was meant to be disconcerting on many levels and I have no trouble with sad endings. My problem with SEVEN is that it was just too disconcerting. I now really hate the fact that Mills (Brad Pitt) shoots and kills John Doe in the end. As a result, Doe is proven right and he wins. Considering the character’s emotional state, what Mills does is very believable and understandable. But here’s what they should have done instead. As Mills was agonizing over what to do, Somerset (Morgan Freeman) should have picked up his gun and shot Doe first. This works better for a number of reasons. The first is that John Doe gets his just deserves without everything going according to plan. Since his scheme was so exacting in its nature, Somerset shooting him destroys it completely and Doe loses. The second reason is that Somerset, the older cop, is able to spare his partner, the younger cop, from making a decision that could torment him the rest of his life and career. Clearly, it still wouldn’t have been a grand or happy ending, but I think would have worked better and not made the film so depressing.
SEVEN is still very good as is, with excellent performances by Freeman and Kevin Spacey. I especially liked how the film opened with a Nine Inch Nails song and closed with a David Bowie one, which obviously was done to coincide with the tour they both were on together at the time of this film’s release.
