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THE SEVENTH SEAL

When Ingmar Bergman passed away last year, I was very discouraged at how many people were unfamiliar with his work. I don’t really understand how the filmmakers and actors that I work with not only had not viewed some of the master’s great works, but were unsure of what movies he actually directed. With Oscar nominations for films such as Wild Strawberries and Cries & Whispers, as well as one as late as 1984 with Fanny and Alexander, to be ignorant of this man’s work is just shameful. However, his masterpiece was never nominated for an Oscar and even lost the prestigious Golden Palm Award at Cannes to Friendly Persuasion, a religious film dealing with the Quakers in Indiana. To say The Seventh Seal was the polar opposite of that film would be an understatement. While Friendly Persuasion dealt with Christianity and their troubles when violence erupts around them, The Seventh Seal dealt with the loss of faith and packs an existentialist punch that was unique for the time.

The film begins in typical Bergman fashion as the lead characters are almost born from the ocean. Antonius Block (Max Von Sydow) and his squire Jöns (Gunner Björnstrand) rest on a beach following their return from the Crusades. They return to a home country decimated by the plague and before they can set off for home, Block is confronted by the figure of Death. Block thinks quickly and challenges Death to a game of chess. Back in the real world, the knight and his squire set off to reunite with their families and come across a travelling troupe of performers who try to entertain the masses in a society that had begun to crumble under the weight of death and pestilence.

While the knight might have originally began the game of chess with Death on a whim to remain alive, he has a chance to do something good as he realizes he might be able to avert Death from taking the loving couple in the troupe and their infant son. That the couple’s names are Mia and Jof (Mary and Joseph) and their son bears the Biblical name Mikael easily compares and contrasts their lives to that of the knight and his squire.

Jof see visions of an angel and a child, religious in nature and, along with Mia continues to have an optimistic outlook on life. In the meantime, Jöns ponders religious paintings depicting pain and suffering instead of joy and laughter and the knight continues on his journey, questioning the existence of God relentlessly. “I want God to put out his hand, show his face, speak to me. I cry out to him in the dark but there is no one there.” It is these questions of faith and existence that is emphasized throughout much of Bergman’s work after this.

Born to a strict Lutheran minister, his first films tended to have a bleak outlook on life. He was never at ease with lighthearted films that might be considered unrealistic. It is with more serious subject matter in films like Sawdust and Tinsel, Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal, that his true genius showed through. A brilliant scene in The Seventh Seal that showcases this disdain for lighthearted affairs is the scene where the troupe’s joyful play is interrupted by a horrible religious progression meant to offer a penance to offset the plagues that had attacked the town. While the comedic play is ridiculed by the crowds and the actors are mocked, the progression, full of men carrying heavy crosses and others whipping themselves, is given almost reverent honor. It is only when serious subject matter is approached that serious appreciation is deserved. There is no room for frivolousness in this time of tragedy.

However, it is not a movie that speaks only of pessimism. There is always a flicker of hope in the eyes of the characters. The knight is always looking for something to believe in, something to look forward to. The knight sees the purity and hope in Mia and Jof as well as the hope for the future of the child. The seeming lack of God in the story does not mean a lack of hope. It is shown that the knight must create his luck, instead of the group relying on an unseen fate.

It is the character of Death that remains the most interesting character in the film. Recently, I have read comparisons to Anton Chigurth in the 2007 Oscar winner No Country for Old Men. The entire movie, the knight plays a dangerous game with Death. There are only three scenes in the movie where the two are actually playing chess, yet the game between the two carries on in the background of the entire film. When the witch is burned at the stake, the knight looks into her eyes and asks to see God or Satan for proof of their existence but it is only Death that he sees. The comparison between Death and Chigurth is clear as the two seem to be more similar than you would expect. No one escapes either being and no reprieves are granted. Likewise, the character of the knight can be compared to Moss in the more recent movie, as he simply goes through his paces, trying to escape the clutches of Death, yet knowing he has no hope at the end. Much of the dialogue found in No Country for Old Men mirrors the dialogue spoken by Death in The Seventh Seal and it appears the classic film was a large influence on the recent award winner.

In that area, the movie does retain a pessimistic, yet realistic depiction of life. Death cannot be escaped. In the scene where Skat fakes his own death to remain alive following being caught with another man’s wife, Death finds a way to dispatch him anyway. The idea was used to lesser quality in future horror movies, but here it is done not as exploitation, but as an eloquent lesson. I would argue that although the movies of Bergman continued to question the existence of God, they hold a small glimmer of hope. While the knight cannot ever hope to defeat Death at its own game, in the third scene with them playing chess, the knight he is able to distract Death from noticing the retreating family, allowing Mia and Jof to escape the fate that awaits the rest of the group.

When Death arrives at the knight’s home to claim his victims, they give in to Death’s icy grip and the final line of the group of travelers is simply “It is finished.” Yet, from the violence of that storm, the small family unit remains safe, going on their way. The final thing Jof sees in the film was the group being led away by Death to their final resting place. As Jof watches the progression led by Death in the distance, it is obvious Bergman believed Death was the supernatural figure, and there was no point in their lives where a God played any part. The Seventh Seal is the story of a man nearing the end of his life, and the road that he must take to finally leave his life on his own terms. It is a beautiful and somewhat troubling picture, but one that tells a poignant story that resonates on deeper levels than anything you would find up to that point in cinema.

When Bergman died, it could be said that Death finally called check mate. The man who created a world where Death haunted the lives of men and women without remorse would pass on to either the other side or to eternal darkness. Bergman once said he was afraid of death, but eventually believed that when you die, you die and “we go from a state of something to a state of absolute nothingness and I don’t believe for a second there is anything above or beyond or anything like that. And this makes me enormously secure.” With that quote in mind, it would seem that while the film can be seen as pessimistic and bleak, in Bergman’s eyes it was not so. If passing into nothingness made Bergman secure, this film would seem to end on a different note, a more positive one. The group passed on with Death, not against their will, but on their own terms. The knight played Death’s game – and lost – yet when it was time to go, they announced “It is finished” and went on their way, knowing it was their time and accepting their fate.