David Fincher Ranked

Although it is just plain fun to rank a director's movies, it may also help me think about the director's oeuvre of work as a whole. Comparisons can help me to discover elements of film that I am drawn to, what the director finds value in revealing through their movies and possibly how the director has grown artistically.

Fincher often depicts the darker side of humanity. He achieves this with the use of a dark color palette and by telling stories of crime, often murder. Sometimes there is a light side to his movies in the form of characters seeking justice or truth, but even when these characters prevail, they are left tainted and scarred.

Fincher often explores the characters…

Fincher often explores the characters caught up in the darkness that inhibits his worlds. He is interesting in exploring why his characters behave in extreme antisocial ways and how the the world itself or society's social order is at least partly, to blame.

He also shows how characters who are fighting the injustice often have darkness within themselves to contend with, which can either prohibit or aide their battle against the forces of evil. The tension between good and evil is extremely blurred here as we question what kinds of evils are tolerable and which ones are necessary for preventing greater evils.

There is a sense that Fincher's worlds exist with laws and forces that are greater than the characters who inhabit them. People may have some impact on these worlds, but it is emphasized that they have very little control over how events will play out. Additionally, he often explores systems that humankind creates themselves and how they can grow and change and live beyond the intentions of the creators themselves, often with negative effects.

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David Fincher Ranked