We are back again! I want to start off by thanking all the wonderful suggestions I got for movies last time, however they are all either films I have not seen, or ones I would like to see again before having a meeting on. (Unless someone else would like to host the meeting for a film of their choice!) And sadly, between work and life in general I haven't had the chance to catch any of them yet. I do apologize, and please do not take me skipping over them for now personally. I have them all written down and I intend to cover as many as I can, allotting for Guest Hosts obviously.

Now, for the actual film of the day. Se7en is a crime/mystery/thriller, with some horror elements to be honest, about a veteran detective and a rash, hotheaded young gun. It stars Morgan Freeman as Detective William Somerset, and Brad Pitt as Detective David Mills. Another cast member worth noting would obviously be Kevin Spacey as John Doe, our criminal at large.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I enjoy a wide variety of movies. Different genres, settings, acting styles.. I just love movies. Se7en is no exception to that. In my opinion it holds the best performances for both Pitt and Freeman, and an airtight screenplay with tremendous atmosphere. Just a great movie, and my favorite of director David Fincher's.

Se7en follows our two detectives as they are thrown together, Somerset actually a soon retiree, in order to make sure Mills is ready to take over his place of seniority. But soon after being tossed together, they find themselves on the trail of a bit of a mystery. Eventually, it turns out that they are chasing after a murderer who is emulating the Seven Deadly Sins. Now, this in itself is just an outstanding concept, and the way it is played out is great. I'll be mainly just doing a breakdown of all of the Kills, so any extra commentary will be through comments chains that you guys bring up.

Our first kill is Gluttony. We are thrown into it as blind as our protagonists as they enter the crime scene of a man who seemingly has eaten himself to death. A suicide, by definition. The living conditions are absolutely disgusting, and the man seems to have been just restrained in a chair as he slowly wasted away. This entire scene is both vile and captivating as Somerset gets his first sense of something awry.

Our second is, of course, Greed. This is probably my least favorite of the kills, although I do still like it. Its much more generic than the others, and in my opinion it should have been his first kill. It would have worked narratively as it was a bit more amateur than his other work, in both style and execution. Doe picked a random lawyer for a general statement, seemingly not putting as much thought into his process as the others. Yes, he defended pedophiles, but Doe had no way of knowing the lawyers play in this. He was likely chosen purely to connect the next victim. This is also, obviously, where Somerset decides that we will likely be seeing a pattern.

Our third victim is Sloth. This man is one of the pedophiles that our lawyer friend defended. We get enough context clues and lines of dialogue to assume he was guilty but got off, or at least our cast believe him to be. Doe, of course, was not as doubting as I. This victim was kidnapped, chained to a bed, and given the bare minimum amount of food and water to survive. For a year. In my opinion the most brutal of the deaths, specifically because the only thing that died was his mind. The stone cold doctor who takes him in says as such. This scene is just absolutely terrifying from an atmosphere point of view. The search of the apartment, to finding his "dead" body.. just bone chilling. And when he "comes back to life" it leaves you speechless.

Next we have Lust. A bit of a curious case for me, I've never quite been able to understand Doe's logic. The victim is a prostitute. If anything she would be filed under Greed, as you could only really argue she was greedy and sold off her body, her temple, for a quick buck. Lust survives, and is in fact only mentally harmed. His interview in the station is a great piece of acting, but the facts I previously stated have always bothered me about his case.

Finally, we have Pride. This one is my favorite out of the five that happen before the final confrontation. An absolutely brilliant, albeit disgusting, way to show the effect of this sin. A beautiful woman is attacked by Doe, but all he does is cut off her nose. He then puts a phone in one hand, and a lethal dosage of pills in another. He tells her to choose, and, of course, she chooses to die instead of living disfigured. This one is the first to show the true nature of Doe. Although he is absolutely psychotic and demented and worthy of death, in his heart he's not doing this to kill. Now obviously this is much more clearly laid out for us later on, but it is definitely worth noting that the seedlings for this were planted at least as early as here.

I've gone on way too long, so a couple of comments before our final two Sins. The fact that the city remains unnamed, and it is always raining and cloudy until all is revealed for the final confrontation, is just amazing filmmaking. It's a small, but important detail and helps the feeling of grossness that you get throughout greatly. Also, I have a few friends who always said that Mills' wife becoming pregnant was absolutely unnecessary for the plot. Obviously I disagree, but we'll get into why later. I could get into the first confrontation with Doe and his general apartment, but I digress.

So, our sixth sin. Envy. John Doe himself. This is not something I consider a flaw of the film, more of a determined character flaw. I would definitely believe that Doe always intended to be Envy, or maybe always knew he would be, but I most definitely think he forced it because he had to accelerate his plans. I do agree that Mills would have likely ended up his target anyway though. His enactment of his sin was, of course, killing Mills' wife and unborn child. Now, I don't believe Doe was truly envious of them. I believe that either the context of the rest of the film, the motivations for his Envy were actually for the job, position, and Mills' general confidence as a person. Killing his wife and child, beheading her, were just a lead up for..

Wrath. The final, and most hateful sin. Mills becomes the embodiment of Wrath. I honestly don't have much to say here. The acting of Pitt is fabulous and you truly feel his inner turmoil as he ponders whether or not to kill John Doe in one of the most tense scenes in cinema history. You feel his release of rage and sense of loss as he unloads the magazine into what had become his mortal enemy. It's a tragic scene and we all can agree with Mills' choice.

This is definitely our longest meeting to date, but I'm so happy you all could make it! Let's talk more in the comments! You can just imagine all the usual questions here, haha, and let's get this conversation started!