The Seventh Seal and Experiencing Death

Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal has pretty much always been in the periphery of my film knowledge. I have heard the name, knew the general concept, but have never seen it until now. I used to think it was one of those classic movies that made you sound pretentious when you talk about it. I thought that's how this, or any review of the film, will sound due to its reputation as one of the greatest films of all time, because who would need to review a film like that?

However, the film surprised me quite a bit. It is a very humble movie in many ways. The subtle yet careful acting, the steady pace, the deliberate cinematography, and the psychologically charged plot all come together to make the film live up to its reputation. 

The movie follows a knight, Antonius Block, who has returned from fighting in the crusades to his country, Sweden, swept by the black plague. Upon returning he meets Death, who tells Block his time has come. However, Block challenges Death to a game of chess. If Block wins, he gets to keep his life. 

The film felt medieval, although I cannot speak for every accuracy or inaccuracy. I think Bergman definitely captured a good tone for the middle ages. His depiction may be a little bleak, but I think rather than that trying to be representative of the whole medieval period, it is reflective of how the people may have felt at the time of the black death. The dreary tone was a directorial choice to express what otherwise would be internalized by these people who feared or experienced the horrible disease, or death.

One of the most interesting parts of this film is that it is about a knight who has just done a lot of fighting in war, but the movie is not about war. The movie tackles the psychological effects of fighting in a war, and then returning home only to experience more death. Block is a very troubled character throughout the whole film. Following the tradition of existentialism in art in the mid-20th century Europe, we see Block continually try to deal with a crisis of faith. At one point, Block is shown to be locked in a prison cell with Death just outside the bars talking to him. Block says to Death, "No man can live with death knowing that everything is nothingness. [...] In our fear we make an idol and call it God." Block, after just fighting in war and coming home to only experience more death all around him, cannot come to grips that God could allow this to happen. His motivation for playing chess with Death is not to save his life, but to get answers about God and ease his existential crisis instead. 

Block was also not literally in a prison cell, but it seems we were rather within his mind. The film does a good job at blending reality and fantasy. It does it so well that it can be disorienting at times, where you don't exactly know where the characters are. One character, Jof, even has mystical visions at some points and sees things like the Virgin Mary with a baby, or Death. This mixing of reality and fantasy also might reflect how people experience death. Not knowing where the film is rooted in reality mirrors how dealing with a lot of grief can place you outside of reality and into the dream-like fantasies of your head as you try to deal with the emotional trauma you have experienced. 

Block is not only representative of how people of the time might have interacted with an abundance of death and widespead grief, but also people of any time period who fear that Death is 'always by their side,' as Death tells Block. I think it is incredibly interesting how the film uses this particular moment in history as a device to explain the sort of internal crises people would feel when death is taking so many around them and they might be next on the list. While, not completely using ideas from the middle ages and instead borrowing from the more modern school of thought of existentialism, in the end, this proved to be a very human story and its message transcends each particular moment in time.