Villains Beginning With 'J'
John Doe
Se7en film (1995)
John Doe is a deranged serial-killer. His twisted agenda involves choosing seven victims who represent egregious examples of transgressions of each of the Seven Deadly Sins. He then views himself as akin to the Sword of God, handing out horrific punishment to these sinners. He is independently wealthy and cuts the skin off his fingers using a razor blade so he doesn't leave any finger prints. All of his thoughts he writes down in journals.
In the film we are told comparatively little about the character of John Doe. The Police Captain describes Doe as "independently wealthy, well-educated and totally insane," but when Somerset tries to tease any personal information out of him, Doe claims that who he is "doesn't matter." Doe has created a completely blank identity for himself; there are no clues to his real identity in his apartment, his bank account was started with cash and he has no employment records; a scene during the opening credits shows him blanking out a picture of a young boy's face with a black marker. However, on the stairwell of Victor's apartment, he poses as a reporter and there is a press pass in his own home, suggesting that he was once a photojournalist. Doe is only really defined by his crimes and his religious mania, as apparent in his apartment. His apartment, and particularly the 2000 notebooks he has compiled over the years, give the biggest clues to who he is.
Doe's apartment is a shrine to his obsession with sin and revulsion at the world. His door carries multiple bolts and locks, his windows are blacked out, and there are religious icons and drawings everywhere. There is an air of asceticism about it, with his basic bed and the red neon cross above it. Doe seems to be a manic obsessive (he collects aspirin bottles and he details every part of his life in his notebooks). The list of flagged books Somerset and Mills procure includes St. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote on the seven deadly sins in his Summa Theologica. Doe also QOUTES from Paradise Lost. These domestic observations are contrasted to his writings on sin. Doe is revolted by the self-glorification of a sinful world. He believes that the human race in the divine scheme of things is a pathetic shadow of what we could have been, if we had not Fallen.
SUMMARY
ARCH RIVAL : |
Detective David Mills, Detective Lt. William Somerset. |
STRENGTHS : |
John Doe is Methodic and patient, (one of his victims he kept alive and tortured for a whole year, just so that he would be discovered at a certain date by the detectives, of which he was setting up). |
WEAKNESSES : |
He is completely insane. |
WEAPONS : |
Guns. |
QUOTE : |
EXTERNAL LINKS
Se7en film (1995) - IMDb
Se7en film (1995) - Wikipedia
Se7en film (1995) - Film 4
Se7en film (1995) - Timeout.com
Se7en film (1995) - Zone-sf.com
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