Re-watched it tonight here with some co-workers and liked it a bit less than when I saw it in high school, but I did come up with a new theory, that it wasn't (um spoiler) Apple's mom's head in the box that freaked Brad Pitt out so much, it was Kevin Spacey's sex tapes.
I think it was a quite good movie, but overall it's too... depressing. I understand the point of the conclusion, but it just leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth. I would've much preferred the original ending that was eventually changed.
SPOILER INCOMING
QuoteIn the original script, Morgan Freeman's character is the one who kills John Doe, in order to save his partner's soul and sanity. It even was requested by the actors that the head of the girl is in the box, it was going to be a dog head as far as I know.
I remember being swept along in 1995 by the buzz about how great the movie was, so I think my reaction when I saw it on a bootleg VHS tape in someone's apartment then was a sort of elevation via acclaim, because while it wasn't bad this time, absent all these college students telling impressionable high school me it was "THE GREATEST FILM OF THE YEAR!!!!" it felt slow and shallow in 2019. But I do think the ending where Pitt shoots Spacey works better.
Seeing the movie back then also explained to me why I kept hearing people going around saying, "Cops go before dicks!" Til then I definitely had the wrong impression about that line, though sometimes a misunderstanding is more fun.
Watched this at the theater on a very cold evening in January with a buddy and my sister. The hype back then was HUGE for the movie and the revolutionary opening credits. I enjoyed the film but thought it 'borrowed' one too many ideas from Silence of the Lambs. I also thought the killer was made out like a super-super villain, which I felt made it even more fiction because real serial killers don't really act like that.
For the extra thrill we were followed by an unknown car on our 35 minutes drive home through a rural area. We finally made a stop in some village where a few people were standing, and the unknown car took off at high speed. Very creepy. The rest of our way home we pretty much had our heads turned back all the time 'afraid' being followed again. Good times :teddyr:
My favorite part of the movie was GWYNETH PALTROW's... blank in the blank. :bouncegiggle: