The Seventh Seal

Death Can't Be Cheated, But Can He Be Beaten?

"Antonios: You'll be black, I'll be white. 
       Death: Seems fitting doesn't it..."

Ingmar Bergman portrays a tale of bleak hope and the test of faith in this Sweedish drama of life and death set during the plague of the dark ages in Europe. When tiring knight Antonios Block and his squire return home from the crusades, he is faced by death himself. Rather than surrender his life so easily, he instead wagers his fate by the outcome of a game of chess. By doing this Antonious is made to use all his knowledge and faith to try and avoid joining the numbers that are rising during this dark time.

Though mainly releasing comedies and more light-hearted films throughout his career, Bergman  instead chooses to focus on a bleaker time in this drama and asks the question, can anyone actually beat and overcome death? The film overall depicts a barbaric time where people clutched onto fate as one only real chance of hope, in one scene in particular, a woman is being burnt for she is believed to be a witch, but it's clear that all she really is, is afraid. I was quite surprised about what this film was actually about when I came to watch it. I thought the main chunk of the film would be the game of chess between Antonios and death, but it was more a representation of people's morals and ethics during the time. The married actors and their newborn baby struggling to find peace and respect. The love triangle of adultery and promiscuity, and of course the tormented knights returning out of the frying pan into the fire. The film really hones in on these characters and focusses the plot around all of them banding together in search of refuge against the plague. Death, despite being a key character, only features a handful of times whereby he and Antonios would continue their game (thus taking the films entirety to end).

When the film started on the beach when Antonios first meets death, it showed real promise, but I began to question where it was actually taking me and how I felt about what was going on. However, I feel that this may have been Bergamn's design, making us question religion, what happens when we die and also giving a true representation of the time it was set. It was a film that went onto inspire many people, and films (the most famous perhaps being Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey where they play Battleships against death, then Cludo and Twister beating death every time). Though maybe not a film that has aged the best, it opened up many doors for people in cinema and made audiences see a darker yet perhaps more truthful side to Bergman's directing, leading it to be a film praised by critics to date. Maybe not one for younger audiences but still a film definitely worth seeing.

7/10