Swat Team Approaches John example essay topic

FILM Chosen: Se 7 en (1995) Director: David Fincher Screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker One of the most revered movies of the 1990's as well as being one of my favorite movies, Se 7 en, brilliantly captures the depravity and horror of the human psyche. Fincher sets the mode of this movie from the get go as being a quote on quote a "dark somber movie" by basically filming the movie in the dark. The cinematographer Darius Khondhji does a fantastic job by creating this very somber movie by over exaggerating the blacks and taking out any bright colors by using this silver retention chemical process. Throughout this movie, the audience is at the edge of their seats as Detectives Mills and Somerset are on a quest to find a deranged serial killer only known as "John Doe". A very nail biting scene that is a very effective suspenseful thrill ride is the raid on John Doe's apartment. The scene opens up with a whipping camera view downwards to the fleet of vehicles carrying the SWAT TEAM.

The tone is set with the heavy onslaught of rain and the very dark huis h colors of black and brown. The only bright colors in the scene come from the siren lights on top of the vehicles. The rain seems to so heavy pouring that it may even seem a bit painful as it floods the empty dinged urban city. Then the SWAT Team break out and run into the building; the sheer heavy number of SWAT Team members only add to the notion that something big is about to happen. This is when composer Howard Shore's music kicks in and creates a more chaotic feeling as the swat members run up the stairs of the old dirty apartment with their shotgun which has a flashlight at the tip of it. It's so dark that the flash light seems to literally cut away the darkness like a sword and light up the entire room.

I always thought Fincher's use of flash lights were interesting in his movies; they seem to be more powerful in terms of brightness and scope in these sequences. The chaotic camera movements mimicking the first person view of a Swat member was effective in that it let the viewer feel as if they were raiding the apartment building looking for this John Doe. As the swat team approaches the floor of John Doe, there is hardly any lighting and creates a more feeling of desolation as witnessed by the lack of tenants in the building. During this time, the music plays somberly and subtly hinting at the danger come. As the SWAT Team approaches John Doe's room, the camera swings around to focus on the door number, 306. All of a sudden, the music swells up really loud creating this warning sign yet it entices and teases the viewers of what is there to come inside this room.

Typically we wouldn't want to go in there, but we feel obliged to see this John Doe's abode as strange as that may seem. As the SWAT kicks in the door with a battering ram, the camera moves in very unsteadily handheld like motion as if to create this sense of adrenaline, speed and anxiety. Use of the steady cam in this sequence would have not created the same feeling of anxiety as created by the shaky nature of the camera. The sound of the doors breaking creates this feeling of uneasy. Is John Doe here? As the Swat Team and detectives walk in the room, the room is just horrid, down right disgusting.

The production designer did a great job in creating this hell whole in the apartment with the walls paint peeling away, the room in a state of disarray, no sunlight, garbage everywhere, it's as if the room was covered by shit. As the Swat Team enters the master bedroom, it is covered from wall to wall of car freshener trees that people hang in their cars. This is the first time we see actual colors of green, red, yellow, bright colors. This is highly effective in creating a visceral experience of the audience, not only do they see the apartment or hear the doors cracking, they also get a sense of how vile the room must smell considering there are literally close to a 1000 of those little tree air fresheners hanging up. Now they can in some sense feel as if they are running and walking alongside the Swat Team. A brilliant shot is when they come upon the actual room, you see four Swat members lined up looking into the camera with their guns up with their lights blinding the screen and the music swells up with its heavy tones of violins, brilliant!

The camera pans slowly back and the audience is shown more of the room as it backs up into the bed. Then we see that there is a body under the cover. So one of the swat members pulls away the cover and what we see is beyond compression, beyond words to describe. Just a horrible sight of a brutalized human with a severed hand.

The face is very thin, blotches of wounds every where on the body, you could literally see every bone of the body. It's as if someone never buried this man and let him rot to death in his bed. Even one of the panicked scared swat team couldn't comprehend what he was seeing, he saying, "what the fuck is this, it has to be some freakin wax sculpture". I don't think showing the body in this state is gratuitous, it sets out to show that the killer has no remorse.

As the camera pans to the top of the bed, the word sloth is written and Detective Mills finds some pictures by his bedpost. It turns out that this man has been lying in this bed for the past 1 year to the exact date; it shows his progression from day 1 till present, a very shocking and unconceivable thought. As the camera slowly pans over John Doe's body, the audience is treated to his wounds and nasty skin complexion. His face is emaciated beyond all belief, no one expects a man to survive one year in his bed. As the swat team looms over the body saying, "you got what you deserved", BOOM! The body starts coughing, the camera whips around violently, everyone is shouting and it creates a very shock panic filled environment.

The audience must have jumped out of their seats in pure utter shock to see that this man is still alive. John Doe starts moving his body in a very violent spastic ways while being held down in his bed by belts. Next we cut away to the emergency vans coming. This scene was highly effective because it was like some sort of rollercoaster ride in the dark. And one of our earliest fears as children is the fear of darkness. The tone of the scene with his eerie music, bleak colors and horrible sight all added to the elements of creating a very scary beautifully edited suspense movie.

It was both surprise and suspense. Suspenseful in that we are approaching John Doe's apartment and surprised that this wasted body is still alive.