The Seventh Seal (1957) - Review

Much like "Wild Strawberries", which was released in the same year, both films focus on someone coping with the end of their lifetimes. This movie has a really good concept for a plot, and despite being parodied several times, its plot still seems intriguing today. All it took for me to get interested in the film was by looking up what it was about. There's so much you can do with a plot like this so I was curious what Bergman would do with the film.

After a knight named Antonius and his squire return home after fighting in the crusades, he meets Death on a beach who has come to take his life. However, he challenges him to a chess match to thwart him as long as possible since he wants to seek answers on life, death, and God and do one meaningful deed before he dies.

The chess game that Antonius has with Death is used as a personification of death. Bergman uses it to show how the knight goes through great measures to avoid Death. At one point, Antonius tries to cheat his way out of death by knocking over the chess pieces, but even that doesn't work. However, Death eventually catches up with him in the end. When Death tries to cheat to help himself win, he prevails. Also, Death is a much better player than any of us, and in the end, he always wins. This is another reason why I think that its plot is very good. Bergman makes the most out of this creative plot.

During Antonius's search to do a redemptive act, he comes across many people. Many of them tell him their outlooks on life and death. The conversations he has with them are definitely the high point of the film. Their responses are brilliant, interesting, and thought provoking. Each one of them continuously challenges your perceptions of the world around you. Almost every single line is unforgettable and carefully written throughout the film. Its dialogue gives you a lot to think about long after viewing it. On my first viewing, I just tried to get a basic understanding of what happened in the film. On my second viewing, however, I tried to pay more attention to the dialogue, and I liked the film a lot better as a result.

A main aspect of this film is its haunting imagery at some points. The scene when a girl is about to be burned at the stake for supposedly consorting with the devil is one of the grim encounters that Antonius encounters in the film. It's a pretty haunting scene and it lingers with the viewer long after watching it. Another scene is the one where a huge crowd of flagellants interrupt a play of Jof and Mia, and try to convince the crowd that they are doomed. It's very direct in asking controversial and essential questions about the existence of God. Perhaps, the most haunting scene comes at the very end when the film shows a depiction of the Dance of Death. Fortunately, the film doesn't make it too straightforward, and the image at the end gives you a lot to think about long after viewing the film.

Since the film's plot was heavily based on the chess game, I assumed that it was going to be a big part of the film. As I got more into the film, however, I realized that the chess game wasn't going to be in the film that much, and I was right. This may not be necessarily a bad thing for some people, but I was slowly starting to forget about the chess game as the film continued on, and by the time it was introduced for a 2nd time near the 60 minutes mark, I felt like it was being underutilized. It was a little disappointing, because Bergman could have done a lot with it if it was in the movie more. I understand that a lot of the movie should be focused on him trying to do a meaningful deed and the experiences he goes through during the time period. However, Bergman could've easily added roughly 15-20 minutes of the chess game throughout the film.

The expedition Antonius went through in the film let us know about his questions on life, death, and God. However, I wish that the film informed us a bit more about himself as an individual and how he approaches life. That's not to say that I didn't care at all about him. In fact, his questions opened the film up to some great dialogue. However, that quest did not show us how he approached life on a daily basis. The only scenes which showed a bit of it were the way too brief scenes of him sharing strawberries and milk with Jof, Mia, and her baby. There should've been more scenes like that. Jöns, Antonius's squire, was a character who was more fully realized. I knew a lot more about him as an individual. As a result, I cared about his fate a lot more.

In conclusion, this was a really great film. The chess game is a really great personification for death, the dialogue is thought-provoking, and it has some haunting imagery which sticks with you long after watching it. I had a few issues with the lack of the chess game being in the movie and the lack of insight on Antonius, but I can see why many people consider it as one of the greatest films ever made. It accomplishes a lot. Being that this is the first Bergman film I watched, he proved to me that he's a talented filmmaker, and I'll definitely be checking out more of his films in the future.

Final Verdict: 8/10 Great