The Seventh Seal - Criterion Collection | Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot

The Seventh Seal - Criterion Collection | Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot | If you Read one Review let it be THIS one.

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The Seventh Seal -...

	The Seventh Seal - Criterion Collection Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot Criterion, 1999 average customer review:based on 176 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

After a decade of battling in the Crusades, a knight challenges Death to a fateful game of chess. More than forty years after its initial release, Ingmar Bergman's stunning allegory of man's apocalyptic search for meaning remains a textbook on the art of filmmaking and an essential building block in any collection. Criterion is proud to present The Seventh Seal in a pristine new transfer.

A powerful and melancholy film

At nearly 180 reviews, there might not be much I can add about this legendary masterpiece. Probably Bergman's most famous film, it has inspired numerous copycats as well as satires, and after watching it for the first time, I can see why.

This isn't the Middle Ages that I studied in school, the Age of Faith in which religion held absolute sway over people's minds and lives. In this movie, the people think all kinds of not so spiritual and forbidden thoughts. Instead, Bergman presents us with a bunch of cynical, disillusioned misfits whose comments sound more like the conversation heard at a post-modernist, nihilistic coffee-klatch rather than the Middle Ages. In that sense, Bergman shows us that the most trenchant insights about a society often come from those who have opted out of it, or have been marginalized or ostracized for some reason. And these are the people Bergman shows us in this very thoughtful movie.

A knight has lost his faith after deciding the Crusades, which he served for 10 years, were a fraud. A former priest expounds his misanthropic and misogynistic world view all throughout the movie. A smith's wife runs off with another man, and a brutal, sadistic former seminarian preys on the unwary and the defenseless, although he does get his comeuppance in the end. The only person who retains his faith, and his honest, open, uncynical and idealistic view of life is the smith, who is portrayed and ridiculed as a doltish simpleton and a cuckhold who can't keep his own wife from running off with a low-status, traveling actor.

The entire cast is outstanding, but I especially enjoyed von Sydow in the main role and the actor who played death, who I didn't know. I'm a big fan of Sydow and he is the perfect choice for the part of the knight. He brings a quiet, reflective, and introspective intensity to the role, which is appropos for an age where people's thoughts so often turned inward in spiritual reflection and meditation.

The story takes place against the backdrop of the Black Death in Europe, which occurred from 1340 to 1347, if I remember right. During that time, 30 percent of Europe succumbed to the disease, and as many as 70 million are thought to have perished. This further adds to the dark and desperate ambience of the movie, notwithstanding the fact that Death himself has a prominent role in the film, as he stalks the knight and his friends.

Some of the scenes are memorable, never to be forgotten. A group of ragged peasants miserably roams the countryside, carrying heavy, timbered crosses on their stooped backs and whipping themselves with flails as they go, hoping by this masochistic self-flagellation to gain God's mercy from the plague, and haranguing the startled onlookers with dire predictions of doom as they go.

Caught between the horns of a hidebound, rigidified Medieval society on one hand, and a deadly and remorseless natural disaster on the other, the characters seem to understand the cruel absurdity of their situation but also stoically try to make the most of each day, since it literally may be their last.

A little side history note here. I once read that one reason for the low population in Europe during most of the Middle Ages was that the average poor commoner couldn't afford the traditional dowry for his daughter for the marriage. Hence, many more men and women remained single, and there was widespread resentment and discontent. By the 16th century, this had became a huge problem in Venice even for wealthy families. As an interesting article on the Armoredages website says,

"The noble families began competing with each other by seeing who could provide the largest dowry. As dowries escalated, lesser nobles were left behind. They simply didn't have enough money to keep up with the Joneses. This left a young girl with few options on how to support herself. She could decide to get employment as a maid or servant of some type, but few chose this option for obvious reasons."

This movie may not be for everyone due to its basically depressing themes, the measured pace, and the fact that there are few uplifting messages to be had here amidst the doom and gloom and the dreariness and drudgery of the Middle Ages, or the misery and destruction brought on by the Black Death. But if you can get past the overall downer themes and atmosphere you'll be treated to one of the great movies by one of the great directors of all time.

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If you Read one Review let it be THIS one.

it is difficult to articulate the greatness of this film. it is comprised of incredibly simple characters yet tears into the complexity of life like no movie i have ever seen. the film transports you to a different era but the fears and ideals are the same we encounter in our lives today. this is a haunting film and very well may change your perception of life.

Bleak, dark but with a ray of hope

BEWARE SPOILERS and needless interpretations.

It really is impossible to consider an Ingmar Bergman movie without immediately running to an interpretation. At least for me that is the case. In particular The Seventh Seal seems to demand that we ask what was Bergman's intention. Was it to show that Christianity and superstition are brothers in arms? Was it to suggest a kind of fatalism that allows some to live and others to die without rhyme or reason?

The story, set in the 14th century during the time of plague, concerns a knight, Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) and his squire Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand) lately returned to Sweden from the Crusades. Bergman combines realism with supernatural elements, such as the appearance of Death (Bengt Ekerot) with whom Antonius Block plays a game of chess, and the visions that the traveling troubadour, Jof (Nils Poppe) sees that nobody else can see including his wife Mia (Bibi Andersson). Block is haunted by death and has been assured that death is imminent, but hopes to put it off by beating Death at chess.

Meanwhile the inhabitants are also in fear of death and seek to blame someone. They seize a young girl (Maud Hansson) and brand her a witch for consorting with the Evil One. They hold her in a pillory prior to burning her at the stake. Notice that instead of denying that she has been with the devil, she tells us that she reaches out and touches him everywhere. The only bright spot in the movie is the family of Jof, Mia and their infant son.

Antonius Block goes to confession only to discover that the priest behind the window is none other than his adversary Death, to whom he inadvertently reveals his strategy in their game of chess. Block is searching for the meaning of life. He is trying to find God, whom he complains is always hiding. Instead he finds Death. Can they be one and the same? Jons is able and cynical and sees through humanity's many delusions. Jof plays at life and sings. Mia is filled with love for life. Guess who lives and who dies.

But of course the plague was the great leveler. Persons of stations high and low were brought within its compass, but Bergman gets to pick and choose who shall live and who shall die.

As usual with Bergman we have the most incredible study of human faces. I particularly liked the close ups of the women. The face of Gunnel Lindblom, who plays the young woman ("Girl" in the credits) that Jons saves from being raped, is particularly striking and intense. I recall her from The Virgin Spring (1960) in which she played Ingeri, the Odin-worshipping servant. The face of Bibi Andersson is a delight with her quick, pretty eyes and her engaging smile.

But Bergman also concentrates on the faces of the bit players, in the mead hall and at the burning and as they watch the traveling players at their song and dance. With Bergman people are intensely real, up close and always personal. And he knows what they think and how they act. He shows us here, as he does in all his films, human hypocrisy and stupidity, human love and frailty. The landscape is bleak, the shadows are dark and life is harsh. Humans take their quick pleasures and then they die. That is the message I think that Bergman is sending to us.

No student of film should miss this, one of the most talked about films ever made, and perhaps Bergman's first great work of art. He died only recently in 2007, not long after being voted (In Time Magazine, I think) as the greatest living director.

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One of the Greats