Se7en is a
psychological thriller film made in 1995 directed by David Fincher and starring
Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey. In this particular scene, we see
serial killer John Doe (portrayed by Kevin Spacey) leading the two detectives
David and William (portrayed by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman respectively) to a
far out place where he is going to show them something mysterious. To create a
great deal of tension between the characters, the producers used lots of
mise-en-scene features. Mise-en-scene is a set of features used by film
producers in order to convey essential information to the audience by showing
us, rather than telling us what is happening.
One element of mise-en-scene is setting. In this particular
scene, David and William are in the two front seats of a police car, being lead
to a mysterious place by John, who is sitting alone on the back seat. The car
is travelling through a completely barren and isolated land, where absolutely
no-one lives. This is showing the audience that John is quite a secretive and
cunning character because he is leading them into a trap where no-one will see
the events that are due to take place. There is a barrier separating John and
the two detectives to make sure that John causes no harm to them. But this
barrier is also deliberately placed by the director to show how isolated John is
from the rest of humanity.
The second element of mise-en-scene is performance and
movement. The two detectives in this scene are still quite clearly overwhelmed
by John’s horrific antics. Brad Pitt as David uses sarcasm to ridicule his
actions, “Wait a minute, I thought all you did was kill innocent people”, but,
he is, however undermined by John’s response. During this statement by David,
he also uses quite a subtle hand gesture, but this is used to emphasise the
point he is trying to make. William, however, doesn’t speak at all during this
scene. However, the camera does two close shots of him, showing his emotions
towards the situation. The first of these close-ups shows William looking up at
the car mirror to see John, and the inquisitive look on his face shows he is
clearly intrigued by what is being said by him. The second close-up shows
William staring into the space beyond the car, again, clearly thinking deep
thoughts and serious consideration about what John is saying.
Kevin Spacey does an absolutely fantastic job of portraying John
because he shows just how isolated a person he is compared to everyone else
through what he says and how he says them. Throughout this scene, he speaks in
quite a monotone voice, which is something not many people do because it gives
the impression that they are boring, but Spacey does this to portray the ‘otherness’
of John’s character. It is also worth noting that his voice sounds quite
robotic; everything he says is said with vast amounts of consideration and his
wide range of vocabulary shows he is someone of quite high intellect despite
being a savage serial killer. John also comes across as quite deluded because
he tries to justify what he has done, despite the seriousness of his crimes.
His calmness and sense of tranquillity sat on the back seat also suggests that
he seems as though he hasn’t done anything wrong. There are also moments where
he raises the tone of his voice to assert what he is saying when he tries to
prove the two detectives wrong.
The final aspect of mise-en-scene is costume and props. Both
detectives are seen wearing quite a similar costuming to represent the profession
and the type of job they are working one. Their costume consists of a
bulletproof vest, shirt and tie and a long coat. The bulletproof vests are
worn, most probably as a police requirement, to protect them from any potential
danger, due to them being in such close proximity to John Doe, a self-confessed
serial killer. The shirt and tie, however, are worn so that they remain smart,
despite them being close to death at some points, which shows these particular
events haven’t had a huge effect on them; it’s just part of their job. The only
noticeable variation in costume between these two characters in this scene is
that William is wearing a black trilby, most likely worn to show his maturity,
due to his age, over the other characters. This trilby hat also suggests
connotations of wisdom that the other characters don’t have.
The clothes John is wearing, however, are completely
different to that of the other characters. He is wearing a plain, red shirt
with plain, red trousers, which were likely to be given to him during his time
in prison, before leading them to this mysterious place. These clothes also
convey negative connotations of blood and danger to the audience, two features
that are highly associated with him throughout the film. He is also wearing
chained handcuffs to prevent him from attacking the two detectives because they
already know he has it in him to kill people. The chains also convey ideas of
animalistic behaviour from John because chains are never associated with taming
humans, but are normally associated with taming animals. There is also a
complete contrast between what he is wearing and what David and William are
wearing to show that they are completely different characters and that John has
isolated himself from society.
To conclude, mise-en-scene features are used in this
particular scene to create a serious amount of tension between the three
characters and to isolate John from David and William, due to the events
throughout the film. The isolated and barren setting, the abnormal acting from
Kevin Spacey and the clothes worn by him, suggest that John is like no-one else
and that he is a maniac. Despite all these, John still tries to justify his
actions by undermining John as he leads them into a trap and, eventually, his
intellectual superiority will lead him to his goal.
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