Former detective Pat Postiglione has revealed Fincher's best movies include plenty that focus on criminal activities, whether it's through the perspective of the people committing the acts, or law enforcement investigating what transpired. His latest crime film is 2023's The Killer, focusing on an unnamed hitman (Michael Fassbender) who seeks revenge after his girlfriend gets attacked. It's been critically praised for its dark elements and thrilling storyline.
However, at the opposite end of that are his projects focusing on criminal investigations. One of his best known movies in the genre is Zodiac, dramatizing the real-life manhunt for the Zodiac Killer in the 1960s and 1970s. In keeping with this realism, he also created Mindhunter, a TV show on Netflix focusing on two detectives interviewing serial killers. While Mindhunter season 3 was sadly confirmed not to be happening, the filmmaker's career is still defined by his realistic crime dramas. However, it turns out not all of his famous films are as accurate to reality as anticipated.
Se7en Isn't As Accurate To Real-Life Serial Killer Investigations As It Seems
Brad Pitt's David Mills Is One Key Element As To Why
Despite having a dark, grounded story, shocking ending of Se7en becoming a staple of film history.
Se7en Review: David Fincher’s Grisly Style & Well-Chosen Actors Force Us To Reconsider Human Nature
Se7en is a grisly murder thriller, with an intriguing discourse surrounding the symbolism of the murders and Freeman and Pitt as a strong lead duo.
However, speaking with Insider on their series How Real Is It?, Postiglione explained how not every detail about Se7en's criminal investigation scenes were accurate to real life. At 10:32, the former homicide detective explained how the team entering a crime scene and securing a victim who was still alive was realistic. However, the behavior of Pitt's David, from touching photos at the scene despite telling everyone not to touch anything, to pursuing a suspect without calling for backup, isn't accurate to how a real detective would react. Check out the full video and what Postiglione had to say below:
Well, I think when they entered the crime scene, they had the whole team with them, which I think was fairly accurate. In the beginning of the scene, when they approached that, they didn't know if they had a suspect. They didn't know who was lying on the bed there. If you think the killer's in there with the victim, then the evidence actually becomes secondary, because the victim becomes your primary concern. So let's go there with the troops and go on in there with some heavy artillery in the event we can catch the killer before the killer actually kills our victim.
You want the victim to survive, because that victim is a wealth of information, obviously. And if we're dealing with a serial killer, this victim could potentially tell you things about this serial killer that will link him to maybe 10 other homicides. Who knows?
I think it was further accurate when the detective said no one touches anything. I think what kind of blew that up was when he picked up, he picked up a whole bunch of photographs and started going through the photographs after he got done saying no one touches anything. He expressed the photographs, I assume a timestamp on it that showed three days ago. Anything with a date on it, whether it's a real date, or whether somebody put that on to try to throw off the investigation, anything like that is useful.
I mean, I've been in situations very similar to that, where the suspect is there, and the suspect has a weapon. The suspect, like in this case, shoots at you, you're going to immediately call for backup. And they didn't do that. Now you can chase the suspect, I'm with you on that, but at the same time, you want him to hear the sirens. You want him to hear the backup coming for you. That may make him run away, that may make him stop doing what he's doing, but you want that backup en route.
The suspect is still in there. Then they got all the innocent people out. That's typically what they would do. The bad guy shoots at the police. You don't necessarily want the police shooting back, because you don't know who's behind that door. Like in this case, they went inside, and there was three kids in there. Had they shot through the door, you know there's a good chance they would've struck somebody totally innocent, uninvolved.
Well, sometimes you have to kick in the door, but I can tell you through experience that sometimes, the door's not easy to kick in. So they have these little ramrods that they use, they can slam the door open, and you go like that, and it just bangs it open real quick. There's a deadbolt involved and whatnot. You may not be able to physically kick the door in. If you got to know how you're going to get in this door, and the killer's on the other side, you're really exposing yourself to some real dangers.
I give this a five.
Se7en is considered a sleeper hit; despite mixed reviews during test screenings, the film earned $327.3 million against a $34 million budget, becoming the seventh highest-grossing film of 1995.
What Se7en's Inaccurate Details Say About The Crime Thriller
The Mistakes Are Reflective Of Pitt's Character
While Postiglione's sentiment about David's actions dropped the film's accuracy score, those small details are reflective of Pitt's character throughout the movie. The young detective is often shown to be brash in his approach, not always following protocol the way he's supposed to. His brashness is contrasted with Freeman's William, whose seasoned work makes him more cautious in his approach to the investigation. This becomes an important part of Fincher's Se7en as the story evolves, proving that, despite the inaccuracies to realistic detective work, these small details still favor developing the protagonist.
Source: Insider/YouTube
Se7en
- Release Date
- September 22, 1995
- Runtime
- 127 minutes
- Director
- David Fincher
WHERE TO WATCH
David Fincher's crime thriller Se7en follows the seasoned Detective William Somerset after he is assigned a new partner, the young and idealistic David Mills (Brad Pitt). The two find themselves investigating a deranged killer staging murders inspired by each of the seven deadly sins. On the hunt for the twisted John Doe (Kevin Spacey) before he can kill again, the two detectives soon discover that they're much deeper into the case than they realized.
- Writers
- andrew kevin walker
- Main Genre
- Crime
- Budget
- $33 million
- Studio(s)
- New Line Cinema
- Distributor(s)
- New Line Cinema
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