Hacker Cinema
Se7en
1995 · Film · 127 min
Directed by David Fincher
Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Somerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer's mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.
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28 comments on Hacker News
This is the kind of unhinged stuff I would expect to read in the notebooks on the set of the film SE7EN...
Someone should make a movie called “Postgres” which is about people living within a Postgres city, in the style of Se7en.
“Every city has secrets. Ours have indexes.”
Go back a little bit further to another Morgan Freeman movie - Se7en (1995) and a big plot point was that it is unthinkable for big brother to be keeping records of what library books people are checking out. Times sure have changed...
If you're interested in these 35mm film scans, I recommend watching this excellent YouTube video "SE7EN & How 35mm Scans Lie to You" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQwQRFLFDd8 for some more background on how this works, and especially how these comparisons can sometimes be misleading and prey on your nostalgia a bit.
If you're interested in making digital footage look exactly like film in every possible way, I'll shill our product Filmbox: https://videovillage.com/filmbox/
> The story is resolved either in the protagonist’s favour or against them: they triumph or else fail tragically.
I've always been a huge fan of the bad guy winning decisively. It is relatively rare.
We have subplots from the action hero films where some pretty bad things happen, but I feel like movies like Se7en and Arlington Road take it to a completely different level.
Sure, I just was giving it as an example because I think it's a pretty funny bible verse out of context, and even a little funny in-context.
Still, the old testament in particular has pretty much every single theme that parents clutch their pearls at; Lot has incestuous sex with his daughters (and it's decidedly not condemned) [1], a man murdering his daughter because she's the first person to enter his house [2], prostitutes getting murdered, butchered, and mailed to her suitors [2].
If the old were accurately made into a movie, it would be right next to Se7en or Saw in categorization, certainly not appropriate for children.
I know that this stuff is probably wrapped in layers of metaphor and social context, that's fair enough, but I don't know why similar charity isn't awarded to books that aren't the bible.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lot_(biblical_person)
[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+11&version=NIV
[3] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+19&version=NIV
For convenience, I asked ChatGPT to create this table, which summarizes how many times each movie has been mentioned in this conversation so far. It got a few counts wrong (as usual), but it still gives a good sense of the frequency. I hope it can be useful to someone:
| Movie | Number of Mentions | |-------------------------------------------|---------------------| | The Matrix | 9 | | Lord of the Rings Trilogy | 8 | | Pulp Fiction | 8 | | Alien | 7 | | Fight Club | 7 | | Ghostbusters | 6 | | Die Hard | 5 | | Back to the Future | 5 | | Inception | 5 | | Star Wars Trilogy (original) | 5 | | Groundhog Day | 5 | | Terminator 1 & 2 | 5 | | Jurassic Park | 4 | | The Thing | 4 | | The Fifth Element | 4 | | Monty Python and the Holy Grail | 4 | | Ghost in the Shell | 4 | | Interstellar | 4 | | Casablanca | 3 | | Office Space | 3 | | Shawshank Redemption | 3 | | The Godfather Trilogy | 3 | | The Blues Brothers | 3 | | Blade Runner | 3 | | Mad Max: Fury Road | 3 | | Unforgiven | 3 | | Total Recall (1990) | 3 | | The Crow | 3 | | The Princess Bride | 3 | | Akira | 3 | | The Big Lebowski | 3 | | Guardians of the Galaxy | 3 | | American Psycho | 3 | | Indiana Jones Trilogy | 3 | | Kiki’s Delivery Service | 2 | | Ratatouille | 2 | | A Clockwork Orange | 2 | | Mission Impossible (various) | 2 | | Casino Royale | 2 | | Skyfall | 2 | | Ferris Bueller's Day Off | 2 | | Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan | 2 | | Apocalypse Now | 2 | | The Shining | 2 | | Groundhog Day | 2 | | Donnie Darko | 2 | | Dune (2021) | 2 | | Gladiator | 2 | | Predator | 2 | | Seven/Se7en | 2 | | The Dark Knight | 2 | | Snatch | 2 | | Prometheus | 2 | | Schindler’s List | 2 | | The Wolf of Wall Street | 2 | | Dr. Strangelove | 2 | | Silence of the Lambs | 2 | | Kill Bill | 2 | | Real Genius | 2 | | Top Secret! | 2 | | Tenet | 2 | | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy | 2 | | The Adjustment Bureau | 2 | | The Expanse | 2 | | Pulp Fiction | 2 |
https://web.archive.org/web/20180310080910/https://jarrettheather.com/wordcrimes/
https://vimeo.com/102959171
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc&t=120s
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22820457
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22820971
jcl on April 9, 2020 | parent | context | favorite | on: Jarrett Heather presents: Word Crimes (2014)
Love the song and video -- great to see the behind-the-scenes and in-jokes.
One thing I'm still curious about is the lyric: "You should never / write words using numbers / unless you're seven / or your name is Prince" -- particularly, whether it was an intentional reference to the movie "Se7en". If it was, it seems like a missed opportunity in the video.
DonHopkins on April 9, 2020 | prev [–]
Funny, I thought the symbol for The Artist Formerly Known As Prince was informally pronounced and spelled "BRUCE", which is less cumbersome to speak and spell than the official alternative (which is unspeakable unspellable silence).
His PR company sent this memorandum around to the press and industry, including step-by-step downloading, installation, and usage instructions for Macintosh and PC, of a special [BRUCE] font with just one unpronounceable [BRUCE] symbol, to be used when referring to The Artist in print. I guess Weird Al didn't get the memo.
https://milk.com/wall-o-shame/bruce_font.html
>Why, the ``Bruce'' font? Because someone jokingly suggested that because it was way too cumbersome to say, ``that symbol guy'' or whatever, it'd be much easier to give the symbol a name, and that name should be ``Bruce.'' So there.
>[BRUCE] Background: On June 7, 1993, mega-star Prince surprised fans and the entertainment industry when he announced that he was separating from his band New Power Generation and changing his name. At that time, the performer legally changed his name to the symbol "[BRUCE]", which has no verbal pronunciation or spelling. He did not reveal his reason for the change.
>The "[BRUCE]" is now the artist's legal name and should be used whenever referring to him in print. However the first time he is referenced in a story, you may wish to use the phrase "[BRUCE] (the artist formerly known as Prince)" to avoid confusion. Thereafter please use the [BRUCE] font.
>To obtain a copy of the [BRUCE] font, which can be easily installed on any Macintosh or IBM compatible PC, please contact Lisa McCormick, Lages & Associates at 714/453-8080. Or the fonts are available onlilne from CompuServe.
>To download the fonts from CompuServe, GO WBRECORDS after logging on, then SEARCH from the LIBRARIES menu for PRNFON.ZIP (for the PC version) or PRNFON.SIT (for the Macintosh). Please follow the instructions in the readme file for any updates on how to load the font on your computer. The fonts are located in Library 2 (the Warner Bros. Library).
Want the Original Prince Symbol Font? Here You Go...
https://techguylabs.com/episodes/1284/want-original-prince-symbol-font-here-you-go
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/prince-font-install-love-symbol/
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jvj2ss4jfymvir1/AADXW3RWGwgykj1mgsInvCRBa?dl=0
https://www.bustle.com/articles/156408-a-princes-symbol-font-download-is-actually-available-at-last
>Though it's become an undeniable piece of musical iconography and a supreme emblem of everything he represents, the meaning of Prince's symbol actually goes far deeper than being just an exercise in artistic branding. Chosen for its impracticality and difficulty to reproduce, the symbol was a way for a fed-up Prince to mess with Warner Bros., his record label, who were critical of the speed of his output, as a way to negotiate the contract he had with them.
>In 1993, when Prince changed his name to an untypeable and unspeakable symbol, it caused problems beyond his record label. Music journalists everywhere had no way that they could feature him in their publications without having a name. So, Prince came up with the perfect solution, creating his very own custom-designed font which substituted a capital P with Prince's symbol.
I don't think that conclusion tells the whole story. If you take a great movie with a very famous twist in in it, they are not good because of the secret/twist, but the secret/twist definitely has greater power if you don't know it beforehand.
For example, there are some movies like The Prestige, The Crying game and The Usual Suspects there is a set up and when the twist happens, you look back and realise the movie was hinting at it at various points but you didn't expect it. If you knew, you would see the hints much more easily and the look back would not be as fun. This sort of has the same impact as a magic trick. It's fun to be fooled.
Some other movies like Se7en, Chinatown and "Easy Rider" I would call "bolt from the blue" where the impact is mostly like being punched in the guts. It's not fun but again if you are not emotionally prepared by knowing what will happen it is much more powerful.
I wouldn't say any of those had a flimsy story. In in all cases the enjoyment comes from the writing, direction, performances etc all being of a very high standard, not just from the twist. The twist really adds something though.
i always appreciate a bone collector reference. what a ridiculous silly amazing movie.
for me the quintessential example is "Phone Booth." starring Kiefer Sutherland, you say? i wonder what role he plays.
i think the movie "Seven" (Se7en) managed to keep the surprise bad guy out of the trailer and unbilled until the end credits. that was badass.
You have some minor errors:
* Mulholland Dr. comes up twice (and different files)
* Same for The Fellowship of the Ring (but the file seems the same)
* Again for Se7en
* In general, most of the movie with a ":" in their title are duplicated ("2001: A Space Odyssey", "Kill Bill: Vol.1", "Star Wars: The Force Awakens")
Also, kudos for having some screenplays I've never found around
this should be top comment
though honestly I was more influenced by movies than books, I guess strongest influence on hour I vote the world around me had Fight Club, Falling Down and American Beauty plus the car speech in Se7en and Collateral as well, Taxi Driver as well
TLDW crap movies teach us crap lessons
I skimmed through the video which it seems to use as example 4-5 crap movies
I'd like to see this video using Falling down, American beauty, Fight club, Se7en as examples, the first three among the movies which formed me the most and taught me valuable lessons.
Reminds me in the movie Se7en, the detectives get the library records of people who have read certain books.
> It's a bit like the police asking the library who checked out a specific book.
And you have no problem with this? Government and police looking into and judging you based on what you read is one step away from policing wrongthink. You can't learn anything deemed dangerous anymore without being arrested. Can't look up how a bomb or sarin gas works without SWAT coming down on you because you're obviously a terrorist.
This government collusion with Google is the same thing. Government and police show up and say "find me a list of people who searched for dangerous knowledge". This is normal now, without even the trepidation depicted in films like Se7en.
reminds me of Se7en, IIRC there's one gun shot in the movie, it's so surprising that it shocks way more than constant gun fights in other movies
it depends on your age, I don't think you can really change your world view based on movie if you are in 30s or older, but you can be definitely influenced if you are teenager and into 20s
taking this into consideration I would recommend these parts of the movies, you can find them all on YouTube without watching whole movie:
Se7en - final John Doe monologue about innocence of his victims in back seat
Collateral - Vincent monologue on back seat about not doing anything with your life
Fight club - pretty much all movie, very influential, should be mandatory for teenagers
American beauty - less extreme version of fight club for older men that you can rebuild your life even in higher age
the big Lebowski - if you care about your clothing maybe it can help you to watch Lebowski
the beach - encouraged me to travel more, although wanted already before
To be clear, The Shining wasn’t alternated against the wishes of the director, but in fact at the behest of the director, and to positive effect.
But on that note, if you’re interested in the studio messing with the director’s intended work, check out the “Love Conquers All” version of the movie “Brazil” (1985). It starts like 40 minutes in, makes no goddamn sense, and ends on a happy note where the original film... definitely doesn’t. A friend of mine described it as (SPOILER for the movie Se7en): “As if in the movie Se7en instead of his wife’s head in the box, it was a cake and she rolled out on a unicycle singing Happy Birthday.”
Love the song and video -- great to see the behind-the-scenes and in-jokes.
One thing I'm still curious about is the lyric: "You should never / write words using numbers / unless you're seven / or your name is Prince" -- particularly, whether it was an intentional reference to the movie "Se7en". If it was, it seems like a missed opportunity in the video.
In my experience Google is a lot better if you don’t know what your searching for (the search “movie head box” returns the movie Se7en in Google and some old movie called “Head” on DDG) but infuriating if you do, as it will provide 6 ads, 8 different “answer boxes” and then link to low quality spam sites below that.
In my experience Google is a lot better if you don’t know what your searching for (the search “movie head box” returns the movie Se7en in Google and some old movie called “Head” on DDG) but infuriating if you do, as it will provide 6 ads, 8 different “answer boxes” and then link to low quality spam sites below that.
A quick Google shows a few sites that keep history of IMDB ratings. Unfortunately they seem to concentrate on movies actually in the IMDB 250
Some interesting ones:
Avatar - http://top250.info/movie/?0499549
Se7en - http://top250.info/movie/?0114369
Heat - http://top250.info/movie/?0113277
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens http://top250.info/movie/?2488496
Terminator 2 - http://top250.info/movie/?0103064
Note: There seems to be a big shifts in movie ranks in May 2005 and July 2012, probably due to a change in the ranking formula.
If you look at movies along the decades everything is amplified. People have shifted their references. I get mental fatigue watching movies these days because everything is fast, quick, chopped, extreme. It's like a manga, without the childish part. High power doesn't mean high dynamic. For instance in Se7en, there's one single gun shot, the whole movie is tame but when that shot occurs the shift is so strong you feel it. It's a musical thing, what makes it is as much the notes than the silence between them. Balance.
Probably most effectively done in the movie Se7en.
>and se7en is a meh movie (and I can argue why).
I challenge you.
I don't think I got good recommendations (based on the ones I've seen) but then again I have peculiar tastes; I think Lilo and Stich is a great movie and se7en is a meh movie (and I can argue why).
Interesting question, just ran a quick analysis for all movies rated 4.5+ star
Highest Consensus:
1. Whiplash
2. 12 Angry Men
3. Se7en
Most Controversial:
1. Birdman
2. Citizen Kane
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey
Well I do think violent films are called out, though definitely less often because games are relatively new. IIRC there were many people attempting to link the Columbine shooting and the Matrix, which had just been released.
I must say I can't watch films like Se7en, American Psycho, Requiem for a Dream, Clockwork Orange without being thoroughly disturbed; this is true to a lesser extent with novels, but I can control virtually everything about the experience. I guess what I'm trying to say is it wouldn't surprise me at all if any number of these media encouraged past people to commit crimes, but that doesn't imply they wouldn't have done anything had they not seen/read/played whatever inspired them.