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Every few years a film comes along that not only scares the pants of its audience, but also makes a killing at the box office.  In recent years we've witnessed this with Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, and Se7en.  (note to self...the title of that script you've always wanted to write must start with an S :)

Se7en has the honour of being one such film that takes its audience on a wild trip into some truly disgusting sides of life that many of us could do without.  Yet unlike most films of this nature, Se7en is never explicit in it's depiction of violence, but rather the aftermath of violence (anyone who was seen the film has to admit there is very little actual on-screen carnage).

With only a week or so left until his retirement, Detective John Somerset (Morgan Freeman) is only too happy to hand the reins over to the new up and coming young David Mills (Brad Pitt), having requested a transferred to New York, with wife Tracy (Gweneth Paltrow) in tow.

His first week on the job sees plenty of action as the two detectives are to investigate the possible incredibly brutal killing of an obese man.   A Man who was drowned in a bowl of soup while sitting at his kitchen table, strapped to the chair with barb wire.

It's not before long that a second and equally nasty murder takes place, and the two detectives work out that the killer is out to murder 5 more people in an effort to rid the world of the Se7en deadly sins.
  

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VIDEO

If you're really into [aka freakily obsessed with] the wonderful world of DVD you've most probably heard a thing or two about the mass effort in bringing Se7en to DVD. 
For the Video Transfer, the original camera negatives were used as the source.  Given how precious a camera negative is, being the original material, for 99.9% of cases it is NEVER used like it was for the Se7en transfer (once you've damaged the original source, you're screwed). 
On the Special Features Disc included in this Deluxe 2 disc set, you will be able to see the work that went into creating this new transfer, from recolour timing, reframing and all sorts of little tweaks to perfect the look Director David Fincher was after.

After the pretty damn average 4x3 transfer Roadshow gave us with their original DVD release of se7en..waaaaay back in early 1998, this brand spanking new Anamorphic Widescreen Transfer is quite a step up in presentation. 

Not wanting Se7en to look the way your average movie looks, colours are intentionally muted and discoloured, and it looks absolutely wonderful, in a bleak morbid way :)

For the purpose of this DVD review I have taken a look over, not only the region 4 DVD, but also the region 1 (NTSC) and the region 2 (PAL).
To the sure disappointment of the Brits, their version is the least desirable of the 3.   I'm glad I got the chance to see the region 2 version as seeing the problems it produces, I picked up on a few problems in both the region 1 and region 4 versions....mostly light artifacting.

At first glance I thought all the artifacting was just film grain, and in some cases it is just film grain.  BUT in most instances, it's just low compression, which causes the likes of the background, and major surface areas to "hunt" around, and sometimes change colour!(I only noticed the colour changes on the region 2 DVD.  An example of film grain is Chapter 7.  the white walls go nuts as Mills walks into the room. 

The region 4 version shows the least amount of artifacting (yay), and is no doubt the smoothest looking picture, followed by the region 1 version.   The region 1 version, however, shows slightly better image depth, but reveals a little more aliasing and is shows a slight push towards edge enhancement.
All three versions really are nice & sharp with a high level of detail, and offer a spot on level of black..which in this film is absolutely critical as it's possibly the darkest looking movie ever.

Spread over two layers of an RSDL DVD, the Layer Change on the region 4 version is within chapter 21 at 62:54 on a Close Shot of Mills sitting in the coffee shop... it's really quite unobtrusive.

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AUDIO
Oooooooooh yeah baby, this is what I was looking MOST forward to about this DVD.

Roadshow have done right by not only the DVD of Se7en, but also of Region 4 DVD'ers.

Se7en comes to us with se7en audio tracks!!  3 are the film audio in different formats and codecs, and the other 4 are dedicated to commentaries.

Of the 3 film audio tracks you get.  A Dolby 2.0 Surround Mix (at only 192kpbs), an encoded Dolby 5.1  Surround EX track (448kbps), AND the best of them all, Australia's FIRST DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete track (754kbps)!!

For the DVD release, the Film's Production company New Line Cinema, went to a lot of effort and totally remixed the audio specifically for the home theatre environment (it's called a Near Field audio mix which re-equalises the sound and all sorts of things :).
Initially, Se7en was to only be remixed into a Dolby 5.1 EX mix, BUT someone over at NLC decided to go one better and offer a DTS track with 6 Full range, totally discrete audio channels (plus the subby)..so the DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete mix was created.

Man does it rock!  The DTS ES mix is absolutely stunning and shows a massive improvement over the Dolby 5.1 Surround EX mix (which in it's own right is also superb).
It's all about clarity and this DTS ES mix leaves nothing out.  The biggest difference is with the surround channels.  Seeing as this DTS mix is fully discrete for all 3 surround (click HERE for some info on DTS ES)channels the depth and imaging is simply mind blowing.
The chapter 2 opening credits are a very good example of the improvements in going to full on DTS ES.  the side wall imaging is 10 times better as the sound wave at the beginning starts at the front, runs along the side walls and to the side surrounds.   On the Dolby Track it kinda just goes plop with very little surround activity in comparison  :) okay okay so there's no plop, but damn it sounds different!

The DTS ES track's sound level is 2 dB higher than the Dolby track so you'll have to compensate for this (having all channels matched to sound the same level, I simply matched the centre channel dialogue of each track to determine this figure)  (and the Dolby 2.0 track plays considerably louder than the two discrete tracks)

Subtly is the key with the Se7en sound mix.  There's very little in the way of big bangs, thunderous floor shaking and glass breaking.
the quietest of sounds can be heard with great detail and pin point localisation.  A good example of this is in Chapter 17 when S.W.A.T  (with Mills and Somerset following) storm in on "sloth"  as they move through the room there is lots of tiny sounds coming from all around (and some excellent use of the surround back channel in both mixes).

My only complaint about this sound mix is that there is some loose audio syncing from slopping ADR work at the very beginning of the film.
Interestingly on my Pioneer DVD717, the Dolby mix shows a slight delay throughout (mainly a fault of this player), BUT on the DTS track, syncing is near perfect...(another good reason to favour DTS over Dolby :)

All in all, both the Dolby 5.1 Surround EX and DTS ES 6.1 Discrete mixes are excellent examples of first rate sound, and I don't think you'll be disappointed either way, but this is clearly one DVD where the differences in sound effectiveness between "extended" Dolby and DTS sound tracks become blatantly obvious.

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EXTRAS

If the 2nd Disc which contains only DVD Extras doesn't please you, then I don't know what will!

This is like an all expenses paid trip!

Disc 1

• Commentary 1 : the Stars.  While Brad Pitt and David Fincher as obviously in a room recording their comm track, Morgan Freeman has been "inserted" in.  There are plenty of inside bits and pieces, but of the 4 tracks, this is my least favourite as it can get a bit bogged down at times.. still worth listening to.. just do this one first :)
• Commentary 2 : The Story.  Richard Dyer (Professor of film studies) acts as a mediator while Writer Andrew Kevin Walker, Film Editor Richard Frances Bruce (an aussie it seems), Mike De Luca (who practically started as a gopher at NLC, but is now their Head of Production..but what was he thinking when he wrote Freddy's Dead..please!:), and David Fincher ramble on about the story.  It's actually a fascinating comm track :)
• Commentary 3 : The Picture - DOP Darius Khondji, Production Designer Arthur Max, That aussie Fella, the professor and Gill...err I mean David Fincher talk about the look of Se7en, and it's another excellent commentary
• Commentary 4 : The Sound.  Unlike the other 3 commentaries, this one has been encoded for Dolby 5.1 playback, and has, not only the music score, but also sound FX cues.  For most of the running time, there's not really a lot of music to hear as Sound Designer Ren Klyce, composer Howard Shore and David Fincher do a lot of talking.  (I found Klyce to be the most interesting to listen to on this one)
• Dolby CANYON Trailer
• DTS piano Trailer

Disc 2 (presented in Anamorphic Widescreen)

• Exploring the Opening Title Sequence . Utilising Multi-Angle you can view the opening title sequence in either it's Early Story Boards, Rough Version or Final Version (you can use you remote control to change the one you view)
  You can also LISTEN to the title sequence in either Dolby 2.0 Surround, Dolby 5.1 Surround EX, DTS ES 6.1 Discrete, PCM 2.0, Commentary 1 (with the concept designer), OR Commentary 2 (with the sound audio engineers)
  If you choose the PCM audio, you WON'T be able to change audio on the fly to listen to any other audio mixes as due to the sheer size of a PCM track, this is has it's own title number AND a different video stream.
• Deleted/Extended Scenes. 7 scenes in total, running 16 odd minutes.  The first deleted scene includes a storyboard comparison.  All scenes also have optional Running Commentary..nice
• Production Designs  Production designer Arthur Max talks over 9 minutes of changing artwork about the look of se7en..very unexpected and very nice to see.
• Filmographies.  Lotsa Cast and Crew Listings
• Alternate Endings there are 2 options here.   One of the "original test ending" the other is another ending via Storyboards.  both come with optional commentary
• Promotional Materials.   the first is a "theatrical EPK..aka interviews, etc.  runs for a little over 6 minutes and is 4x3 windowboxed in a 16x9 frame.  the other is the Theatrical Trailer in 16x9 with DD5.1 sound..damn good trailer to!
• The Notebooks .  Seems these notebooks are fast becoming more famous than the first edition of a H.P Lovecraft novel.  8 minutes of changing stills with Notebook Art Director and Designer.
• Mastering for the Home Theatre.  Comes in four parts.  Audio Mastering, Video Mastering, Colour Correction and Telecine Gallery.
  - Audio Mastering, Video Mastering and Colour Correction are all part of the 1 section and so continuously play.  comes with Running commentary
  - Telecine Gallery - here you can see 3 sequences with their original video transfer and audio, or new video and audio. (all changeable on the fly.)   (NOTE.  the NEW audio mix is missing the surround back audio information..listen to the chopper flying from surround left to right at the very end of "coda" and you'll hear it totally disappear within the middle sound field ...it's present on the region 1 version ..no biggy though :)

Roadshow have come up Trumps with this DVD release and have offered the BEST version of ALL the Se7en : 2 disc special Editions released around the world (and it even comes in a Double Amaray Case!!)

Now THIS is what I call an Ultimate Edition DVD!! Highly recommended

Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717  (using RGB outputs)
Receiver : Denon AVC-A1SE THX Ultra (Dolby Surround EX, DTS-ES Discrete)
Speakers:-
     Mains: Quadral Amun
     Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
     Surrounds Left/Right: M&K SS500 (Dipole)
     Surrounds Back : Polk RT/fx (Diplole)
     Subby: M&K V125 

- Reviewed 7th August 2001

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