The Seventh Seal (1958)

Expected more

Absolutely amazing

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

I can see why this movie is a staple in film schools. It looks great, especially since it was made in 1957 with a budget much smaller than other gorgeous films of that time.The character Death has a simple but very striking look. I love the set design, the lighting, the camera angles, the play of light vs shadow. The premise is interesting, as well as the setting (Europe during the Black Plague).However, the story and the characters are pretty dull. Nothing much happens and I did not feel any emotional connection to any of the characters. The knight suffering from an existential crisis feels a bit weak and is overshadowed by his more grounded but unlikable squire. The rest of the characters come across as simpletons.

Thus begins Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece Det sjunde inseglet, or The Seventh Seal if you prefer. A Crusader knight Antonius Block has returned to his home country Sweden with his squire Jöns to find it ravaged by the plague. Immediately upon their arrival Antonius meets Death and promptly challenges him to a game of chess with his very life as the stakes. From there we follow his journey across the land towards his castle where he believes his lovely wife to be waiting.The Seventh Seal is an epic. From the very first scene with Death standing on a rocky beach and sitting across from a disillusioned knight, we enter the realm of myths and legends. The scenes in the movie are somewhat disjointed. We might go from a prolonged scene of travelling actors playing roosters on a stage to a march of flagellants, religious fanatics whipping themselves bloody to earn salvation. Yet they all talk about much of the same thing. Why are we here? And now that we are here, what are we doing with the life given to us?The movie also ponders upon the so called silence of God. Why we have to live in uncertainty? Why the requirement for salvation is unquestioning faith? How are we supposed not to fear death when we have no guarantees. Antonius Block struggles with these very questions and the people travelling with him represent the different kinds of answers one might receive. None of them are hundred percent correct. Or perhaps they are, depending on your point of view. The movie lays down the questions and some of the possible answers, but in the end it's up to you.It's also a very impressive film visually, especially given the budget. Death, played by Bengt Ekerot, is especially memorable. His figure with a dark cape and a black cowl, almost monk-like in appearance, is one of the definitive images of Death in popular culture. And for a reason. Every scene he and Antonius share together is heavy, filled to the brim, trembling.The Seventh Seal was not at all what I expected, but then they so rarely are. Most definitely worth a watch for multitude of reasons, from the imagery to the themes to the story.

Ingmar Bergman's career of brooding cinematic successes was practically borne here, in an amazing study of doomsday travelers in 14th century Sweden confronting their mortality. In the age of the Black Plague, the streets are filled with pagans, drunks, artisans, performers, religious zealots and volunteer witch-burners; a knight and his squire, home from the Crusades, stop at the ocean, where a most benign Grim Reaper tells the knight he has been at his side for a long while. They engage in a winner-take-all game of chess, though the knight is just biding time to save the friends he has made from Death's clutches. The barbarism and cruelty aside, writer-director Bergman does show a streak of pithy black humor, resulting in some amazing sequences (such as the juggler cut down from a tree by Death and his scythe). The overlay of brutality in the name of Christianity, the torment of faith and the heavy symbolism are often tough to wade through, while the metaphor of the chess game has left the picture open for parody. Still, "The Seventh Seal" is a must-see film, matching its iconic imagery with themes of the eternal struggle. *** from ****

On the Criterion Collection interview with Ingmar Bergman, he relates that he wrote the chess scene over his own fear of dying. This would have been an immensely interesting idea to explore, but after he mentions it, the interview is practically over. That left me rather frustrated.The film itself may also leave one rather frustrated, as it explores the principal character agonizing over God's unwillingness to show His face and answer his existential questions about the meaning of life and the certainty of death. When Death (Bengt Ekerot) makes his entrance to claim him a victim, Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) challenges the Grim Reaper to a game of chess, the winner to exact his own reward. The Knight must quickly readjust his game plan after he unwittingly reveals his strategy to the black clad harvester of souls.The film is set during the time of the Black Plague, following a 'worthless' crusade of ten years that the Knight and his Squire Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand) participated in. All around them are wanderers half crazed with fear at the thought of the Plague approaching. All the time Death appropriates his victims, he claims to know nothing and hold no secrets. Fearing his own demise, Block (Bergman?) disrupts the chess board, intent on prolonging his existence in a world full of uncertainty."The Seventh Seal" is Bergman's stunning allegory of man's search for meaning, but what I've come to understand after many years is that each person must come to terms with himself from within. Attempting to extract answers from a single source is bound to end in disappointment, trapped if you will in a Knight's world of phantoms and dreams more like nightmares. This is the kind of film that presents more questions than answers, as I'm sure Bergman understood and intended.