A particular person said that he wanted to take me to see a Movie to make-up for the amount of time that he had not spent around. As a surprise and to make up for the missed time he said that he had a perfect movie to take me to and that I would love it. Excited that he had brought notice to his time, I jumped up and stood to say "What is the Movie?" I was so excited as I love movies. Just then he said, "I can't tell you it would ruin what else I want to do." !! Hesitantly I said "What do you mean?" because I was pregnant and it brought a bother to my immediate gut talking scare. He joked laughed and flipped his head in a strange lurid stare saying dinner. I said alright but I don't won't to stay out to late and I'll will have to see if can make arrangements for my in house kids to be cared for by whom may be at the house. He said "don't worry about it the arrangements have already been made." just than I realized that I was going to enjoy a free evening out for the first time in absolutely forever. Thinking it would be fun and relaxing before my baby was born I held to no particular view of what movie had recently hit the theaters and then. . . .
good actors and not thinking that the movie could possibly be as graphic as it ended being as I was assured at the Ticket Box Office that it was really good and not at all frightening I went on for the 'he' was the father of the baby I was pregnant with and I could not would not believe that anyone could be that cruel to an already mother and his unborn child. What came to be was the honest and The Just as I had live nightmares that have never ceased, the day terrors were overwhelming and that actual fright I experienced during this movie is carried today, I couldn't move . . . . . . . .
Reader's Digest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
February 1922 cover of Reader's Digest
| |
| Editor-in-chief | Liz Vaccariello |
|---|---|
| Format | Digest |
| Total circulation (2013) | 4,593,564[1] |
| Founder | DeWitt and Lila Bell Wallace |
| First issue | 1922 |
| Company | Reader's Digest Association |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | New York, New York |
| Website | www |
| ISSN | 0034-0375 |
Reader's Digest is an American general-interest family magazine, published monthly (except for between 2010 and 2012 when the American edition was published ten times a year).[2] Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it now has its headquarters in New York City. The magazine was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace. For many years, Reader's Digest was thebest-selling consumer magazine in the United States, losing the distinction in 2009 to Better Homes and Gardens. According to Mediamark Research (2006), it reaches more readers with household incomes of $100,000+ than Fortune, The Wall Street Journal,Business Week and Inc. combined.[3]
Global editions of Reader's Digest reach an additional 40 million people in more than 70 countries, with 49 editions in 21 languages. It is believed that the printing system MEPS was used to achieve this multi language translation. It has a global circulation of 10.5 million, making it the largest paid circulation magazine in the world. It is also published in Braille, digital, audio, and a version in large type called Reader's Digest Large Print. The magazine is compact, with its pages roughly half the size of most American magazines'. Hence, in the summer of 2005, the U.S. edition adopted the slogan: "America in your pocket." In January 2008, it was changed to: "Life well shared."
Contents
[hide]History[edit]
Inception and growth[edit]
The magazine was started by DeWitt Wallace while he was recovering from shrapnel wounds received in World War I. Wallace had the idea to gather a sampling of favorite articles on many subjects from various monthly magazines, sometimes condensing and rewriting them, and to combine them into one magazine.[4]
Since its inception, Reader's Digest has maintained a conservative[5] and anti-Communist perspective on political and social issues.[6] The Wallaces initially hoped the journal could provide $5,000 of net income. Mr. Wallace’s continuing correct assessment of what the potential mass-market audience wanted to read led to rapid growth. By 1929, the magazine had 290,000 subscribers and had a gross income of $900,000 a year. The first international edition was published in the United Kingdom in 1938 and was sold at 2 shillings. By the 40th anniversary of Reader’s Digest, there were 40 international editions, in 13 languages and Braille, and it was the largest-circulating journal in Canada,Mexico, Spain, Sweden, Peru and other countries, with a total international circulation of 23 million.[4]
The magazine's format for several decades consisted of 30 articles per issue (one per day), along with a vocabulary page, a page of "Amazing Anecdotes" and "Personal Glimpses", two features of funny stories entitled "Humor in Uniform" and "Life in these United States", and a lengthier article at the end, usually condensed from a published book. These were all listed in the Table of Contents on the front cover. Each article was prefaced by a small, simple line drawing. In recent years, however, the format has greatly evolved into flashy, colorful eye-catching graphics throughout, and many short bits of data interspersed with full articles. The Table of Contents is now contained inside. From 2003 to 2007, the back cover featured "Our America," paintings of Rockwell-style whimsical situations by artist C. F. Payne.
The first "Word Power" column of the magazine was published in the January 1945 edition, written by Wilfred J. Funk.[7][8] In December 1952 the magazine published "Cancer by the Carton", a series of articles that linked smoking with lung cancer.[9] This first brought the dangers of smoking to public attention which, up to then, had ignored the health threats.[citation needed]
From 2002 through 2006, Reader's Digest conducted a vocabulary competition in schools throughout the United States called Reader's Digest National Word Power Challenge(NWPC). In 2007, the magazine said it had decided not to have the competition for the 2007–08 school year, "but rather to use the time to evaluate the program in every respect, including scope, mission, and model for implementation."[10]
In 2006, the magazine published three more local-language editions in Slovenia, Croatia and Romania. In October 2007, the Digest expanded in Serbia. The magazine's licensee in Italy stopped publishing in December 2007. The magazine launched in The People's Republic of China in 2008.
For 2010, the U.S. edition of the magazine planned to decrease its circulation to 5.5 million, from 8 million, to publish 10 times a year rather than 12, and to increase digital offerings. It also planned to reduce its number of celebrity profiles and how-to features, and increase the number of inspiring spiritual stories and stories about the military.[11] It has been increased back to 12 times a year from 2013.[2] The regular features include the cartoon series Reynolds Unwrapped by Dan Reynolds.
Business organization and ownership[edit]
The magazine's parent company, The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (RDA), became a publicly traded corporation in 1990. As of 2010 RDA has reported a net loss each year since 2005.[12] In March 2007, Ripplewood Holdings LLC led a consortium of private equity investors who bought the company through a leveraged buy-out for US$2.8 billion, financed primarily by the issuance of US$2.2 billion of debt.[4][4][11] Ripplewood invested $275 million of its own money, and had partners including Rothschild Bank of Zürich and GoldenTree Asset Management of New York. The private equity deal tripled the association's interest payments, to $148 million a year.[4]
On August 24, 2009 RDA announced it had filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy court a pre-arranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy, in order to continue operations, and to restructure the $2.2 billion debt undertaken by the leveraged buy-out transaction.[4][13][14] The company emerged from bankruptcy with the lenders exchanging debt for equity, and Ripplewood's entire equity investment was extinguished.[4]
In April 2010, the UK arm was sold to its management. It has a licensing deal with the US company to continue publishing the UK edition.[15]
In 2010, the US the company cut the number of issues it published a year from 12 to 10. It also cut its circulation guarantee for advertisers to 5.5 million copies from 8 million. However it returned to monthly editions beginning in January 2013.
RDA Holding filed for bankruptcy for a second time on February 17, 2013.[16]
Sweepstakes agreement[edit]
In 2001, 32 states attorneys general reached agreements with the company and other sweepstakes operators to settle allegations that they tricked the elderly into buying products because they were a "guaranteed winner" of a lottery. The settlement required the companies to expand the type size of notices in the packaging that no purchase is necessary to play the sweepstakes, and to:
- Establish a "Do Not Contact List" and refrain from soliciting any future "high-activity" customers unless and until Reader's Digest actually makes contact with that customer and determines that the customer is not buying because he or she thinks that the purchase will improve his or her chances of winning.
- Send letters to individuals who spend more than $1,000 in a six-month period telling them that they are not required to make purchases to win the sweepstakes, that making a purchase will not improve their chances of winning and that all entries have the same chance to win whether or not the entry is accompanied by a purchase.[17][18][19]
The agreement appeared to adversely affect Reader's Digest circulation in the U.S.[clarification needed] Its 1970s peak circulation was 17 million U.S. subscribers.[4]
Direct marketing[edit]
RDA offers many mail-order products included with "sweepstakes" or contests. U.S. Reader's Digest and the company's other U.S. magazines do not use sweepstakes in their direct mail promotions. A notable shift to electronic direct marketing has been undertaken by the company to adapt to shifting media landscape.[20]
Criticism[edit]
Reader's Digest in the UK has been criticised by the Trading Standards Institute for preying on the elderly and vulnerable with misleading bulk mailings that claim the recipient is guaranteed a large cash prize and advising them not to discuss this with anyone else. Following their complaint, the Advertising Standards Authority said they would be launching an investigation.[21] The ASA investigation upheld the complaint in 2008, ruling that the Reader's Digest mailing was irresponsible, misleading (particularly for the elderly) and had breached three clauses of the Committee of Advertising Practice code.[22] Reader's Digest was told not to use this mailing again.
International editions[edit]
Although Reader's Digest was founded in the U.S., its international editions have made it the best-selling monthly magazine in the world. The magazine's worldwide circulation including all editions has reached 17 million copies and 70 million readers.
Reader's Digest is currently published in 49 editions and 21 languages and is available in over 70 countries, including Slovenia, Croatia, and Romania in 2008.
Its international editions account for about 50% of the magazine's trade volume. In each market, local editors commission or purchase articles for their own market and share content with US and other editions. The selected articles are then translated by local translators and the translations edited by the local editors to make them match the "well-educated informal" style of the American edition.
Over the 90 years, the company has published editions in various languages in different countries, or for different regions.
Usually these editions started out as translations of the US version of the magazine, but over time many non-US editions became unique, providing local material more germane to local readers. Local editions that still publish the bulk of the American Reader's Digest are usually titled with a qualifier, such as the Portuguese edition, Seleções do Reader's Digest (Selections from Reader's Digest), or the Swedish edition, Reader's Digest Det Bästa (The Best of Reader's Digest).
The list is sorted by year of first publication.[23] Some countries had editions but no longer do; for example, the Danish version of Reader's Digest (Det Bedste) ceased publication in 2005 and was replaced by the Swedish version (Reader's Digest Det Bästa); as a result, the Swedish edition covers stories about both countries (but written solely in Swedish).
On February 17, 2014, The Guardian had this headline: "Reader's Digest sold for £1. Mike Luckwell buys struggling title from Jon Moulton's private equity company, Better Capital, with plan to target over-50s".[24]
- 1938 – United Kingdom (sold in 2010, operated under licence)
- 1940 – Latin America (in Spanish) (as Selecciones)
- 1942 – Brazil
- 1943 – Sweden
- 1943 – Egypt (Arabic) (Al-Mukhtar)
- 1945 – Finland[25]
- 1946 – Australia, Denmark, Japan
- 1947 – Belgium (French), France, Norway, Canadian French
- 1948 – Canadian English, Japan, Germany, Italy (operations discontinued in 2007),South Africa, Switzerland (in French and German)
- 1950 – Argentina, New Zealand
- 1952 – Austria, Spain
- 1954 – India and Pakistan (in English)
- 1957 – Netherlands
- 1965 – Republic of China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia (in Traditional Chinese)
- 1968 – Belgium (Dutch)
- 1971 – Spanish speakers in the United States (in Spanish), Portugal
- 1978 – South Korea
- 1991 – Hungary, Russia
- 1993 – Czech Republic
- 1995 – Poland
- 1996 – Thailand (operations discontinued in 2014)
- 1997 – Slovakia
- 2004 – Indonesia (operations discontinued in October 2015)
- 2005 – Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria
- 2007 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Ukraine
- 2008 – People's Republic of China (operations discontinued in 2012)
Arabic editions[edit]
The first Reader's Digest publication in the Arab World was printed in Egypt in September 1943.[26] The license was eventually terminated.
The second effort and the first Reader's Digest franchise agreement was negotiated through the efforts of Frederick Pittera, in 1976, an American entrepreneur, who sold the idea to Lebanon's former Foreign Minister, Lucien Dahdah, then son-in-law of Suleiman Frangieh, President of Lebanon. Dahdah partnered with Ghassan Tueni (former LebanonAmbassador to the United Nations, and publisher of Al Nahar newspaper, Beirut) in publishing Reader's Digest in the Arabic language. It was printed in Cairo for distribution throughout the Arab world under title Al- Mukhtar. In format, Al-Mukhtar was the same as the U.S. edition with 75% of the editorial content. Philip Hitti, Chairman of Princeton University's Department of Oriental Languages and a team of Arabic advisers counseled on what would be of interest to Arabic readers. The publication of Al-Mukhtar was terminated by Reader's Digest in April 1993.
Canadian edition[edit]
The Canadian edition first appeared in July 1947 in French and in February 1948 in English, and today the vast majority of it is Canadian content. All major articles in the August 2005 edition and most of the minor articles were selected from locally produced articles that matched the Digest style. There is usually at least one major American article in most issues.
"Life's Like That" is the Canadian name of "Life in These United States." All other titles are taken from the American publication. Recent "That's Outrageous" articles have been using editorials from the Calgary Sun.
Under new management—the new editor is Robert Goyette—the Canadian edition continues to publish.
Indian edition[edit]
The Indian edition was first published in 1954. Its circulation then was 40,000 copies. It was published for many years by the Tata Group of companies. Today, the magazine is published in India by Living Media India Ltd,[27] and sold over 600,000 copies monthly in 2008. It prints Indian and international articles.[27] According to the Indian Readership Survey Round II of 2009, the readership for Reader's Digest is 3.94 million, second only to India Today at 5.62 million.[27] The India edition Chief Executive Officer is Ashish Bagga. The India Editor is Sanghamitra Chakraborty.[28]
Australian edition[edit]
Reader's Digest Australia today has an any issue readership of 1.5 million (according to Nielsen) and a circulation of over 200,000. The magazine has a guaranteed audience with a 90% subscription rate. The editor-in-chief is Sue Carney.
New Zealand edition[edit]
With a readership of 299,000 per month Reader's Digest remains a firm favourite magazine for kiwis. This magazine circulates approximately 50,000 copies per month.
Books[edit]
Reader's Digest publishes bi-monthly a series of softcover anthologies called Reader's Digest Select Editions (previously known as Reader's Digest Condensed Books). During the 1970s, there was also a Reader's Digest Press, which published full-length, original works of non-fiction.
Editors[edit]
- Lila Bell Wallace and DeWitt Wallace (1922–64)
- Hobart D. Lewis (1964–76)
- Edward T. Thompson (1976–84)
- Kenneth O. Gilmore (1984–90)
- Kenneth Tomlinson (1990–96)
- Christopher Willcox (1996–2000)
- Eric Schrier (2000–01)
- Jacqueline Leo (2001–07)
Jacqueline Leo is President and Editor in Chief of The Fiscal Times, a news website launched in February 2010.
After spending years in the magazine and newspaper business, Ms. Leo founded and launched Child (magazine) in 1986. A year later, The New York Times Magazine Group acquired the magazine and appointed her Editor-in-Chief of Family Circle magazine. Under her leadership, an article on toxic waste dumping won the 1990 National Magazine Award for Public Interest, the first time that a woman’s magazine ever received the honor. She later became Editorial Director of The New York Times Women’s Magazine Group, where she launched Fitness magazine and a variety of special interest publications.
Since then, Ms. Leo worked in a variety of media: She was Vice President of Editorial Operations, Sales and Marketing for Meredith Interactive where she oversaw the digital development of Better Homes and Gardens (magazine) and Ladies' Home Journal; she was Senior Producer and Editorial Director for ABC News’ Good Morning America; and served as Editorial Director for Consumer Reports magazine and their varied media products.
From 2001 through November 2007, Ms. Leo was Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Reader's Digest,[1] the largest paid circulation magazine in the U.S., with a readership of 38 million.[when?] She was responsible for converting the magazine from reprints to original content, and introducing contemporary graphics, columns and features in the magazine. Leo produced a half-hour documentary about the life of Alex Haley, a former contributor to Reader's Digest, as a companion to the book, Alex Haley: The Man Who Traced America's Roots.
Leo's latest book, Seven:
1.) The Number for Happiness, Love, and Success was published in December, 2009, by Jonathan Karp, then editor and publisher of 12 Books, a Hachette company.[2]
Seven (1995 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Seven | |
|---|---|
_poster.jpg)
Theatrical release poster
| |
| Directed by | David Fincher |
| Produced by | Arnold Kopelson Phyllis Carlyle |
| Written by | Andrew Kevin Walker |
| Starring | Brad Pitt Morgan Freeman Kevin Spacey John C. McGinley Gwyneth Paltrow |
| Music by | Howard Shore |
| Cinematography | Darius Khondji |
| Edited by | Richard Francis-Bruce |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
Release dates
|
|
Running time
| 127 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $33 million[2] |
| Box office | $327.3 million[2] |
Seven (sometimes stylized as SE7EN)[3] is a 1995 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher, and starsBrad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, John C. McGinley, R. Lee Ermey and Kevin Spacey. The film was based on a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker.
Contents
[hide]Plot[edit]
In an unnamed American city, soon-to-be-retiring detective William Somerset (Freeman) is partnered with short-tempered-but-idealistic David Mills (Pitt), who recently transferred to the department, moving to the city with his wife Tracy (Paltrow). Mills introduces Somerset to Tracy, after which Somerset becomes her confidant. Tracy is unhappy with the city and feels it is no place to raise a child. She discloses to Somerset that she is pregnant and has yet to inform her husband. Somerset sympathizes with her, having a similar situation with his ex-girlfriend many years earlier, and advises her to only tell Mills if she plans on keeping the child.
Somerset and Mills investigate a pair of murders. The first victim is an obese man forced to eat until his stomach ruptured. The second was a wealthy defence attorney who died from both fatal bloodletting and the removal of a pound of flesh. At each crime scene, the murderer leaves behind clues for the detectives, including the singular words, "gluttony" at the obese man's home and "greed" at the attorney's office. Somerset recognizes them as part of the seven deadly sins and realizes the murders are related. Other clues lead them to a possible perpetrator's apartment. There, they instead find another victim, a known drug dealer and child molester, barely alive but strapped to a bed and emaciated, with a series of pictures indicating he had been tied to the bed for an entire year. The word "sloth" is scrawled on the wall. The photos also show their killer has been planning these deaths for some time.
Somerset and Mills identify a man named John Doe (Spacey), who has checked out several library books on the deadly sins. Doe flees when they go to his apartment, and Mills gives chase. Doe eventually corners and holds Mills at gunpoint, but after a few moments, turns and escapes. At Doe's apartment, they find hundreds of handwritten journals of Doe's apparent psychopathy, and clues leading to a fourth victim. They arrive too late to prevent the death of the victim: a prostitute killed by an unwilling man forced by Doe to wear a bladed S&M phallic device on his genitals and to simultaneously rape and kill her and severely traumatizing him. They find "lust" written on the door. They are alerted to their next victim, an attractive young woman, presumably a model, that had her face mutilated by Doe, and then given the option to either to call for help and be disfigured, or commit suicide by pills. She chooses the latter. The word "pride" is written on her wall.
Shortly after, as Somerset and Mills return to the police station, they are approached by a man covered in blood, surrendering himself. Mills recognizes him as Doe and arrests him. They discover Doe has been removing the skin on his fingers to avoid leaving behind prints, while the blood on him is from an as-yet-to-be-identified victim. Doe, through his lawyer, advises there are two more victims and offers to take the detectives to them and confess to all the murders, but only under very specific terms, or he will otherwise plead insanity. Somerset is wary, but Mills agrees.
The two detectives, following Doe's directions, drive with him out to a remote desert location. Within minutes, a delivery van approaches them. Mills holds Doe at gunpoint while Somerset goes to intercept the driver, who was instructed to bring a box out to them. As Somerset recovers the box and sends away the driver, Doe begins telling Mills about how jealous he is of Mills' life and marriage to Tracy, antagonizing Mills. Somerset opens the box, and in horror, tells Mills to stay back and not listen to Doe. Doe continues to taunt Mills as Mills frantically asks what is in the box. Doe reveals that he was so jealous of Mills, he killed Tracy, her death being a result of his envy, and that her head is in the box. Doe tries to goad Mills into vengeance, to become wrath and shoot him. Somerset desperately tries to convince Mills not to shoot Doe, but then Doe reveals that Tracy was pregnant. The revelation is too much for Mills and he shoots Doe, repeatedly. Doe's death completes the seven sins. Police converge and take a devastated Mills away. The police captain reassures Somerset that Mills will be taken care of. The film ends with a voice-over by Somerset, in which he paraphrases a quote by Ernest Hemingway: "'The world is a fine place, and worth fighting for'...I agree with the second part."
Cast[edit]
- Brad Pitt as Detective David Mills
- Morgan Freeman as Detective Lieutenant William Somerset
- Gwyneth Paltrow as Tracy Mills, David's wife
- Kevin Spacey as John Doe
- R. Lee Ermey as Police Captain
- John C. McGinley as SWAT team leader California
- Richard Roundtree as District Attorney Martin Talbot
- Richard Schiff as Mark Swarr
- Julie Araskog as Mrs. Gould
- Mark Boone Junior as Greasy FBI Man
- John Cassini as Officer Davis
- Reg E. Cathey as Coroner
- Peter Crombie as Dr. O'Neill
- Hawthorne James as George
- Michael Massee as Man in Massage Parlour Booth
- Leland Orser as Crazed Man in Massage Parlour
- Richard Portnow as Dr. Beardsley
- Daniel Zacapa as Detective Taylor
- Alfonso Freeman as Fingerprint Tech
- Harris Savides as 911 Operator
- Andrew Kevin Walker as Dead Man
- Richmond Arquette as Delivery Man
Production[edit]
Pre-production[edit]
The primary influence for the film's screenplay came from Andrew Kevin Walker's time spent in New York City while trying to make it as a screenwriter. "I didn't like my time in New York, but it's true that if I hadn't lived there I probably wouldn't have written Seven."[4] He envisioned actor William Hurt as Somerset and named the character after his favorite author, W. Somerset Maugham.[4]
Jeremiah S. Chechik was attached to direct at one point.[4] During pre-production, Al Pacino was considered for the Somerset role, but he decided to do City Hall. Denzel Washington and Sylvester Stallone turned down the role of Mills.
The ending of the screenplay, with the head in the box, was originally part of an earlier draft that New Line had rejected, instead opting for an ending that involved more traditional elements of a detective thriller film with more action-oriented elements. But when New Line sent David Fincher the screenplay to review for his interest in the project, they accidentally sent him the original screenplay with the head-in-the-box ending. At the time, Fincher had not read a script for a year and a half since after the frustrating experience of making Alien 3; he said, "I thought I'd rather die of colon cancer than do another movie".[5] Fincher eventually agreed to direct Seven because he was drawn to the script, which he found to be a "connect-the-dots movie that delivers about inhumanity. It's psychologically violent. It implies so much, not about why you did but how you did it".[5]He found it more a "meditation on evil" rather than a "police procedural".
When New Line realized that they had sent Fincher the wrong draft, the President of Production, Michael De Luca, met with Fincher and noted that there was internal pressure to retain the revised version; De Luca stated that if Fincher promised to produce the movie, they would be able to stay with the head-in-a-box ending.[6] Despite this, producer Kopelson refused to allow the film to include the head-in-a-box scene.[7] Actor Pitt joined Fincher in arguing for keeping this original scene, noting that his previous film Legends of the Fall had its emotional ending cut after negative feedback from test audiences, and refusing to do Seven unless the head-in-the-box scene remained.[8]
Filming[edit]
Filming took place in Los Angeles, California.
Fincher approached making Seven like a "tiny genre movie, the kind of movie Friedkin might have made after The Exorcist." He worked with cinematographer Darius Khondji and adopted a simple approach to the camerawork, which was influenced by the television show COPS, "how the camera is in the backseat peering over people's shoulder".[5]Fincher allowed Walker on the set while filming for on-the-set rewrites.[4] According to the director, "Seven is the first time I got to carry through certain things about the camera – and about what movies are or can be".[5]
The crowded urban streets filled with noisy denizens and an oppressive rain that always seems to fall without respite were integral parts of the film, as Fincher wanted to show a city that was "dirty, violent, polluted, often depressing. Visually and stylistically, that's how we wanted to portray this world. Everything needed to be as authentic and raw as possible." To this end, Fincher turned to production designer Arthur Max to create a dismal world that often eerily mirrors its inhabitants. "We created a setting that reflects the moral decay of the people in it", says Max. "Everything is falling apart, and nothing is working properly." The film's brooding, dark look was achieved through a chemical process called bleach bypass, wherein the silver in the film stock was not removed, which in turn deepened the dark, shadowy images in the film and increased its overall tonal quality.
The 'head in a box' ending continued to worry the studio after filming was completed. After the first cut of the film was shown to the studio, they attempted to mitigate the bleakness of the ending by replacing Mills' wife's head with that of a dog, or by not having Mills fire on John Doe. However, both Fincher and Pitt continued to fight for the original ending.[8] The final scenes of Mills being taken away and Somerset's quote from Ernest Hemingway were filmed by Fincher after initial filming was complete as a way to placate the studio (the original intention was for the film to suddenly end after Mills shot John Doe).[7]
Title sequence[edit]
On the film's title sequence, Fincher has said:
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
Seven was released on September 22, 1995, in 2,441 theaters where it grossed US$13.9 million on its opening weekend. It went on to gross $100.1 million in North America and $227.1 million in the rest of the world for a total of $327.3 million,[10] making Seven the seventh-highest grossing film in 1995.[11] The film also spent 4 consecutive weeks in the top spot at the U.S. box office in 1995.
Critical response[edit]
The film was well received by critics and holds a 80% positive rating at the film-review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 68 critics with an average rating of 7.6 out of 10. Its consensus reading: "A brutal, relentlessly grimy shocker with taut performances, slick gore effects, and a haunting finale."[3] The film has a rating of 65 on Metacritic based on 22 reviews.[12]
Gary Arnold, in The Washington Times, praised the cast: "The film's ace in the hole is the personal appeal generated by Mr. Freeman as the mature, cerebral cop and Mr. Pitt as the young, headstrong cop. Not that the contrast is inspired or believable in itself. What gets to you is the prowess of the co-stars as they fill out sketchy character profiles".[13]Sheila Johnston, in her review for The Independent, praised Freeman's performance: "the film belongs to Freeman and his quiet, carefully detailed portrayal of the jaded older man who learns not to give up the fight".[14] In his review for Sight and Sound, John Wrathall wrote, "Seven has the scariest ending since George Sluizer's original The Vanishing...and stands as the most complex and disturbing entry in the serial killer genre since Manhunter".[15] In his "Great Movies" list review, film critic Roger Ebert commented on Fincher's direction: "None of his films is darker than this one."[16]
Accolades[edit]
New Line Cinema re-released Seven in Westwood, Los Angeles, California on Christmas Day and in New York City on December 29, 1995, in an attempt to generate Academy Award nominations for Freeman, Pitt, and Fincher, which was ultimately unsuccessful.[17]
American Film Institute lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains
- John Doe - Nominated Villain
- AFI's 10 Top 10 - Nominated Mystery Film
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Recipients | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 68th Academy Awards | Best Film Editing | Richard Francis-Bruce | Nominated |
| 49th British Academy Film Awards | Best Screenplay - Original | Andrew Kevin Walker | Nominated | |
| 1996 MTV Movie Awards | Best Movie | Seven | Won | |
| Most Desirable Male | Brad Pitt | Won | ||
| Best On-Screen Duo | Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman | Nominated | ||
| Best Villain | Kevin Spacey | Won |
Home media[edit]
For the DVD release, Seven was remastered and presented in the widescreen format, preserving the 2.40:1 aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition. Audio options includeDolby Digital EX 5.1, DTS ES Discrete 6.1, and Stereo Surround Sound.
The Seven DVD features four newly recorded, feature-length audio commentaries featuring the stars and other key contributors to the film, who talk about their experiences making Seven.
This DVD is also compatible with DVD-ROM drives. Disc One features a printable screenplay with links to the film. The Blu-ray Disc was released September 14, 2010.[18]
Novelization and comic books[edit]
In 1995, a novelization with the same title was written by Anthony Bruno based on the original film.[19]
Between September 2006 and October 2007, a series of seven publications were published by Zenescope Entertainment with each of the seven issues dedicated to one of the seven sins. It told the story from the perspective of John Doe rather than the two homicide detectives as in the film. Each issue included contributions by a group of creators independent of each other. All seven parts became part of a comic book that was released on January 15, 2008 by as SE7EN book edited by David Seidman and Ralph Tedesco.[20][21]
Soundtrack[edit]
The opening credit music is a spliced sample of an uncredited remix of the Nine Inch Nails song "Closer", available as "Closer (Precursor)", remixed by Coil, on the "Closer" single. The song during the end credits is David Bowie's song "The Hearts Filthy Lesson", found on his album Outside. The film's original score is by Howard Shore.
- "In the Beginning" – The Statler Brothers
- "Guilty" – Gravity Kills
- "Trouble Man" – Marvin Gaye
- "Speaking of Happiness" – Gloria Lynne – written by Buddy Scott & Jimmy Radcliffe
- "Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068 Air" – written by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Stuttgarter Kammerorchester / Karl Münchinger
- "Love Plus One" – Haircut One Hundred
- "I Cover the Waterfront" – Billie Holiday
- "Now's the Time" – Charlie Parker
- "Straight, No Chaser" – Thelonious Monk (Taken from Monk in Tokyo)
- "Portrait of John Doe" – Howard Shore
- "Suite from Seven" – Howard Shore
Cultural influences[edit]
Samay: When Time Strikes, a Bollywood film, was inspired by this film.
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- Dyer, Richard (1999). Seven. London: British Film Institute. ISBN 9780851707235.