Seven Pounds Essay

An element that composes an empathetic society is the ability of the people to pay it forward. When destruction is brought to a community by an individual, they must compensate to correct their actions. If the individual who caused this damage doesn’t fix what they’ve done, the weight of guilt and self-hatred leads to mental deterioration. The person who has committed unscrupulous deeds against their society will go to drastic measures to find a solution to cleansing themselves, even if what they did was an accident. In the film Seven Pounds, a man named Ben Thomas inadvertently causes the deaths of seven people in a car crash. It becomes obvious that Thomas feels responsible for these people’s lives. He decides to give his life to repay his debt to society and radically change seven other people’s lives. Throughout the film, the full story as well as the struggles the characters endure is represented through mise-en-scene, and cinematography rather than through words. Filming techniques reveal a deeper meaning in the lives of all the characters and provide elements that convey emotions more efficiently to the audience.

Mise-en-scene helps to reveal truths about the character’s lives and qualities. Whenever a shot of Thomas is shown he is surrounded by darkness and “rotten colors”. In one of the first scenes, Thomas is at his beach house which is supposed to be a paradise as pictured in flashbacks with his wife. The darkness surrounding him shows his struggles and depression he faces. After getting off the insulting phone call with Ezra, Thomas lists off the names of the people he killed. “Ken Anderson, Nicole Anderson, Ally Anderson, Ed Rice, Steven Phillips, Monica Freeman, Sarah Jenson” (Seven Pounds). Immediately, Thomas’ remorse is revealed as he stands in a dark room full of boxes showing that the place holds torturing memories and no longer heals him. Later in the movie, Emily Posa, one of the people Thomas is planning to save, is having dinner with Thomas. She gives him clothes to change into because he is always in bland business suits. “Yeah, it’s pink” (Seven Pounds). Thomas isn’t used to wearing colorful clothes. When Posa gives the pink shirt to him it represents how she brings life to him and is the only thing that can heal him since the accident. When Thomas is in his bathroom and remembering the car accident the lighting shadows half of his face. “In seven days, God created the world. And in seven seconds, I shattered mine” (Seven Pounds). Thomas reflects on how he ruined his and seven other people’s world. The shadow covering half his face resembles the guilt and lack of feeling he endures. The light on the other side of his face shows the hope and urge to correct his mistake. Mise-en-scene helps the audience to realize characters feelings, understand symbolism, and mirror emotions felt by characters in the film.

Cinematography is a basic element of filming that can show emotions or thoughts felt by characters, what the audience focuses on, and the overall reception of an image. Many shots of characters are taken close up to draw focus to their emotions. In Seven Pounds, this is very important to the film because of the intensity of the feelings felt by each character. In the shot when Thomas is trying to find out whether Stewart Goodman is a good person or not, the shot focuses on Inez, who is writing down information about Goodman on a paper. “He’s punishing you. How is he punishing you?” (Seven Pounds). After Thomas says this, the shot moves to a medium close-up on Inez to show her pain and sadness. She is so impacted by Goodman’s actions that she can’t even communicate and the focus on her instills a shocking and pitiful feeling in the audience. Later in the film, Thomas and Posa are in a bright, beautiful field with each other. The quality of the long shot captures everything important in the scene and conveys a warm, happy feeling. Posa expresses her feelings to Thomas. “I haven’t felt like this in a really long time” (Posa). The warm quality of the shot shows how two characters that represent death find love and happiness in each other despite their struggles that weigh them down. Also, the long shot captures nature and the tranquility of the space they are in to show peace, healing, and relaxation between Posa and Thomas. In another shot, Thomas remembers the accident and wakes up laying in his bed. The framing of the shot only includes his upper body and head to show his empty emotion. He looks shocked as he remembers the unfortunate day. A figure then rises behind Thomas outside of the depth of field and reaches a hand on to his face. The depth of field shifts to his wife but her face is still a bit blurred. This shows that she is currently a figment of his imagination and that Thomas is remembering his wife and obviously still misses her. The shot then shifts to an aerial shot of the bed and shows that Thomas is alone. This reveals Thomas’ manic depression and how his guilt is mentally deteriorating him. Cinematography is an excellent way to convey information to the audience indirectly and also can help the audience comprehend emotion better than words can.

Words are not the only way an idea can be expressed to others. In film, devices such as cinematography and mise-en-scene help to convey ideas. In fact, these basic film techniques can sometimes better explain concepts and emotions through visuals that indirectly connect with the viewer. In Seven Pounds, mise-en-scene is used mainly to expose the characters’ life, thoughts, and values. Cinematography is used to reveal emotions or thoughts felt by characters through framing mostly, what the audience focuses on through scaling, lighting, and focus, and the overall reception of an image. When mise-en-scene, cinematography, and editing are combined the artist can manipulate these devices to ultimately convey exactly what they want to. The artist can make the audience mirror feelings, understand a character’s life, and build bonds with characters. Without these film techniques, only words would be left to explain feelings, thoughts, and events. This would make the audience lose its connectivity with the entire film. Filming devices are truly what make a film stylistic and intriguing. The entire structure of a well-developed film relies on devices, such as mise-en-scene and cinematography, which conveys deep messages to the audience to help them connect and understand the character’s lives, thoughts, and emotions.