Watch: The 7 Deadly Sins of Cinema
What do the seven deadly sins look like up on the big screen?
Capital vices, cardinal sins, the seven deadly sins—whatever you call them, this classification of vices and immoralities may not be the hook on which you hang your moral hat, but they are certainly recognized, to some degree, as being the baddest of the bad things a person can be, have, or do: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride. In this supercut by Albert Gómez of Room 237, see how the seven deadly sins are represented in cinema, from the greed of Gordon Gekko to the pride of Scarlett O'Hara.
Though David Fincher went above and beyond and made an entire film about the seven deadly sins with Seven, most films address at least one of the seven vices in one way or another, something I think the supercut ends up revealing. Regardless of your belief system, each one of the cardinal vices affect all of humanity to varying degrees, so naturally our films would reflect that.
Other than being an interesting observation of cinema, the supercut also serves as a decent writing tool. I've referred myself to the seven deadly sins a few times in the past when writing scripts. It's easy to get hung up trying to figure out a protagonist's main flaw, but having a list that simplifies the scattered moral logic in my brain makes things a whole lot easier to flesh out.
Source: Room 237
