It's hard to believe the facts depicted in this movie. In general, the same topic that was the basis for "Elephant" (Gus Van Sant) is present here: A killing spree, inspired by revenge, and madness. In THE SEVENTH DAY though, the deed is carried out by grown ups, and somehow that is harder to believe. We are informed that ELEPHANT was inspired by the tragedy in Columbine. As irrational as it was, the explanation was there: a typical reaction of outcasts, not coping with a society that alienate them. A crisis of teenagers. But what about grown ups?. Harder to swallow.
So, you tend to believe that the premise in THE SEVENTH DAY is possible, but not probable. That is until you know that this movie was also inspired in actual events. There was a killing spree that took place in Puerto Hurraco, Spain, in 1990, carried out by two brothers, supposedly instigated by their sisters. In the real events, it seems that an old dispute over lands, and a failed love, originated everything. In Carlos Saura's movie, those facts are fictionalized, but there's something more, that somehow is implicit in the real causes: the perpetrators felt alienated, hated, cursed by the rest of the town. So their anger and hatred, and their madness, accumulated for years, could only find one way out.
I got to know that the movie was based in actual events after I watched it, and I couldn't believe it. It gave me a completely new perspective about what I thought was an improbable scenario. What do you know? A sign of the times indeed. Elephant and The Seventh Day depict violent and irrational acts that not long ago were supposed to be only in movies, but regretfully, are part of our reality.
There are some formal problems in this movie that make me grant it a 7/10 qualification, mainly some secondary story lines that have no great interest or are treated superficially, and a narration that doesn't work well overall. But still, the story is not as fictionalized as to make it ridiculously improbable, and once you know that the main facts are true, you can tell yourself: yes, this is how it could have happened.
So, you tend to believe that the premise in THE SEVENTH DAY is possible, but not probable. That is until you know that this movie was also inspired in actual events. There was a killing spree that took place in Puerto Hurraco, Spain, in 1990, carried out by two brothers, supposedly instigated by their sisters. In the real events, it seems that an old dispute over lands, and a failed love, originated everything. In Carlos Saura's movie, those facts are fictionalized, but there's something more, that somehow is implicit in the real causes: the perpetrators felt alienated, hated, cursed by the rest of the town. So their anger and hatred, and their madness, accumulated for years, could only find one way out.
I got to know that the movie was based in actual events after I watched it, and I couldn't believe it. It gave me a completely new perspective about what I thought was an improbable scenario. What do you know? A sign of the times indeed. Elephant and The Seventh Day depict violent and irrational acts that not long ago were supposed to be only in movies, but regretfully, are part of our reality.
There are some formal problems in this movie that make me grant it a 7/10 qualification, mainly some secondary story lines that have no great interest or are treated superficially, and a narration that doesn't work well overall. But still, the story is not as fictionalized as to make it ridiculously improbable, and once you know that the main facts are true, you can tell yourself: yes, this is how it could have happened.