Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Morgan Freeman | ... | Somerset | |
Andrew Kevin Walker | ... | Dead Man at 1st Crime Scene (as Andy Walker) | |
Daniel Zacapa | ... | Detective Taylor at First Murder | |
Brad Pitt | ... | Mills | |
Gwyneth Paltrow | ... | Tracy | |
John Cassini | ... | Officer Davis | |
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Bob Mack | ... | Gluttony Victim |
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Peter Crombie | ... | Dr. O'Neill |
Reg E. Cathey | ... | Dr. Santiago | |
R. Lee Ermey | ... | Police Captain | |
George Christy | ... | Workman at Door of Somerset's Office | |
Endre Hules | ... | Cab Driver | |
Hawthorne James | ... | George the Night Guard at the Library | |
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William Davidson | ... | First Guard at the Library (as Roscoe Davidson) |
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Bob Collins | ... | Second Guard at the Library |
A film about two homicide detectives' (Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt) desperate hunt for a serial killer who justifies his crimes as absolution for the world's ignorance of the Seven Deadly Sins. The movie takes us from the tortured remains of one victim to the next as the sociopathic "John Doe" (Kevin Spacey) sermonizes to Detectives Somerset and Mills -- one sin at a time. The sin of Gluttony comes first and the murderer's terrible capacity is graphically demonstrated in the dark and subdued tones characteristic of film noir. The seasoned and cultured but jaded Somerset researches the Seven Deadly Sins in an effort to understand the killer's modus operandi while the bright but green and impulsive Detective Mills (Pitt) scoffs at his efforts to get inside the mind of a killer... Written by Mark Fleetwood <mfleetwo@mail.coin.missouri.edu>
Despite clichés, and a very depressing finale, this is one of the best-made films of its era and genre.
The strengths of the film include an odd relationship between the two lead cops, who seem loosely based on the two lead cops of the "Lethal Weapon" series, but who (thankfully) never play for laughs, and never really become "buddies" - the young cop is too arrogant, and the older cop has too much experience, which the young cop refuses to acknowledge. The two characters are also brilliantly acted by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt (probably his best performance).
There's one odd flaw in the film - about half-way through, I found that I had learned to "expect the unexpected" from the film, which meant that the rest of the film was predictable in a bizarre way - simply decide where the expected move would be, and then expect the unexpected move instead. The most obvious instance of this is in the finale itself, which could be guessed at least 5 minutes ahead of time.
Normally, this would be a formula for disaster - but fortunately, the high quality of the film-making twists the film into an edge-of-the-seat suspenseful waiting game as we watch with horror the one cop's encounter with the insanity of pure evil.
I didn't want to admire this film (to be honest, I dislike Brad Pitt something fierce), but I'm afraid I must - very professionally made, it delivers its promised suspense all the way.