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FILMTRACKS.COM
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Review of Seven (Howard Shore)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you are prepared to be bludgeoned by Howard
Shore's menacingly churning and frightfully depressing, growling,
bass-heavy score, heard in its only consistent, impactful form during
the climactic execution scene.
Avoid it... on the original commercial album if you expect it to contain either of the opening or closing credits songs or any consistent representation of the film's incredibly oppressive mood.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Seven: (Howard Shore) So disgusting was the plot of
David Fincher's 1995 thriller Seven that it actually turned its
biggest vice into a source of blockbuster appeal. Through outstanding
acting performances and a bleached process of photography that
convincingly conveyed the decay of urban society, the production grossed
ten times more than its $30 million budget, earning both critical and
popular praise while largely overlooked by major awards. It's a
masterpiece of psychological depravity and despair, so overwhelmingly
depressing that it captures your attention despite its absolutely
grotesque depictions of violence. A killer frustrated by society's ills
creates elaborate murder scenes inspired by the historical seven deadly
sins, eventually involving the pursuing detectives in the gruesome
execution of the final two sins. The complicated and shockingly
disturbing methods of killing in Seven are among the most
difficult ever put to screen, and the agonizing climax, calmly but
devastatingly performed by Kevin Spacey in a heralded cameo role, is
nothing less than traumatizing. Capitalizing on the notion that not only
is society a potential loss, but the bad guy also sometimes wins,
Seven is an interesting study in insanity, a topic debated
considerably by the three leads in the final scene of the film.
Everything sensory about Seven is bluntly dull by intention, its
technical elements desaturated to emphasize a dirty environment, and the
mixing of the music into that atmosphere is equally hazy. In between the
use of Nine Inch Nails and David Bowie songs during the opening and
closing credits sequences, Seven employs music very sparingly.
The older, wiser detective played by Morgan Freeman is typically
provided a faint mix of vintage jazz, heard in the mix as though it was
quietly playing in another room during that character's moments of
contemplation. The younger detective, embodied by Brad Pitt, doesn't
receive any coherent musical identity.
For the sinister and methodical rituals of Spacey's "John Doe," Fincher turned to an original score by Howard Shore after hearing his restrained suspense music for The Silence of the Lambs. The director would collaborate a few more times with Shore for subsequent character-centered thrillers as well. Even here, though, the impact of the music is secondary (at best) compared to the intensity of the plot. There exist really only two modes of operation for Shore's underscore in Seven: the quietly mechanical primary theme for Doe and the alternately heightened, broad strokes of deep brass for scenes of elevated activity. Most of the film utilizes the first element, with the Doe theme mixed very minimally in between extended conversational scenes that feature no music at all. If Seven has a significant weakness, it is in the pacing of some of these slower scenes, and the application of Shore's churning score doesn't assist the film in overcoming the hiccups it experiences along its path to the inevitable. Like nearly every expression in the score, the composer identifies the theme with extremely low brass in slightly dissonant chord structures. There is significant menace to be heard in both of the two types of cues that Shore offers the film. If you're seeking much intelligence in the actual constructs underneath this brooding ambience, you might be disappointed. Shore does, likely intentionally, form the Doe theme using seven notes (two descending pairs followed by three pulsations), and, on occasion, he uses a briefly rising alternative to this figure when Gwyneth Paltrow's character is on screen. The secondary motif in the score is a more primal rhythm extending from the three final notes of Doe's theme, methodically pulsating on the low brass with crashing piano, thumps from percussion, and muted trumpets creating disharmony with each calculated throb. This motif accompanies a few of the scenes of police movement in the middle of the film, but it makes the greatest impression in the hair-raising electrical grid scene that closes the narrative. In both the car ride to this final location in Seven and in the crescendo to the conclusive execution, Shore's pounding and difficult score makes its most lasting impression. At the end of that scene, Shore hints at the development of an even more melodramatic seven-note theme based on the same general movement of Doe's identity, but as in the rest of the work, this theme is never fully realized. It's the primordial pounding of taiko drums on those final notes of the Doe theme that prevail, as the action of the young detective prove the worst inclinations of man as predicted. Ultimately, this is a low-key, dissonant score that doesn't have much more than an ambient impact on the film. While Shore does utilize crescendos in abundance during the work, it's easy to get the impression that the movie would have functioned almost as well without any original music until the final fifteen minutes. Industrial sound effects would have sufficed, essentially, up until that time. The brightest moment of contrast in the score, the opening "The Last Seven Days" piece of marginal optimism, was rejected in favor of a song placement. The original 1995 album is dissatisfying not only because the score really doesn't translate well into its own listening experience, but also because the aforementioned songs by Nine Inch Nails and David Bowie ("Closer" and "The Hearts Filthy Lesson," respectively) were inexcusably not included by TVT Records on the product. After a collection of mostly incongruent vintage jazz and light rock, the album concludes with almost twenty minutes of Shore's score in two tracks. These two tracks conveniently divide the brooding, ritualistic Doe theme (in "Portrait of John Doe") from the agonizingly climactic pounding of the ensemble for the final scenes (in "Suite From Seven"), but they aren't worth the album alone for score collectors. A 60-minute Concorde score-only bootleg expanded the misery in the late 1990's, and Shore's own label eventually released a slightly rearranged version of those same contents in 2016. It's a mind-numbing hour to tolerate on those longer presentations, one that requires extreme patience and an intellectual appreciation of an art form that can never yield a truly sane listening experience. **
TRACK LISTINGS:
1995 TVT Records Albums:
Total Time: 57:05
1998 Concorde Bootleg: Total Time: 60:17
* track titles switched on album packaging 2016 Howe Album: Total Time: 61:09
NOTES & QUOTES:
None of the TVT or bootleg albums' inserts includes extra information about the
score or film. That of the 2016 Howe album contains notes about both, as well as a list
of performers.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Seven are Copyright © 1995, 1998, 2016, TVT Records, TVT Records/Cinerama, Concorde (Bootleg), Howe Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 11/11/09 and last updated 3/18/17. |
