World Film Classics: The Seventh Seal

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Written and Directed by Ingmar Bergman
With Max von Sydow, Gunnar Bjoernstrand, Nils Poppe, Bibi Andersson, Bengt Ekerot
Sweden, 1956. 96 minutes.

You know, I hate to confess it, but the first time I saw this movie, I wasn't nearly as blown away as I was supposed to be. This might have something to do with the way it has been abused since its release almost half a century ago. From Woody Allen to Monty Python to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, the once-powerful imagery has been raped again and again.

Of course, Ingmar Bergman can't be blamed for the fact that copycats and parodists plundered this film and turned it, retrospectively, into a cliché. Once you get past the hackneyed chess game with Death (and stop thinking of Keanu Reeves challenging the Grim Reaper to a game of Twister), the heavy philosophical stuff can still grab you in the guts: man's search for meaning in an empty universe, the struggle for an answer from a God who refuses to answer, humanity's speechlessness in face of void. Forget about frequent flyer miles and glove compartment microwave ovens: we're still no better off than the 14th Century folks depicted in the movie.

But wait, I'm supposed to give you a plot summary before I get into the existential questions: a knight (Max von Sydow) returns from the crusades and finds Sweden in the claws of the Black Plague. Death wants to take him, but he gains some time by challenging the hooded figure to the famous chess game. He meets some traveling artists, he sees some folks flogging themselves, he watches a witch burn to death, he makes it home to his wife, but in the end, of course, Death don't have no mercy.

Whole dissertations have been written about all of this, so I won't attempt to sum up in a couple of lines what many consider the best movie ever made. Instead, let me tell you what struck me the last time I watched this film: Rather than the heavy stuff about Death and the Void, I noticed how masterfully The Seventh Seal addresses the whole breadth of the coin's flipside, life: there's art, there's food, love, power; there's the whole canvass of the human circus: fighters, soldiers, thieves, lusty strumpets, religious fanatics, witches, and workers. There are divine visions and low humor, and it's all held together by beautiful photography.

In other words, what amazes me about this film -- which has a reputation for the heavy philosophical stuff and drags a ton of academic baggage around with it -- is that it's so watchable, so accessible. The Seventh Seal is not great because it's about Death, it's great because it's a film about life and death that's gripping to watch.

More Seventh Seal Links
There's a lot of Death on the Internet. Read fawning reviews, incisive analyses, vicious pans -- and even buy some merchandise. Maybe the Reaper will spare YOU.

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