The Seventh Seal (1957)

Ingmar Bergman's Det sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal) is the story of a knight returning home to Sweden from the Crusades. Upon his arrival, he realizes that his country has been ravaged by the plague and discovers that he, too is about to die. He meets death almost immediately after the film begins and makes a plea to try and spare his life - he will play death in a game of chess and if he wins he shall live. The remainder of the film depicts the knight as he tries to make the journey home to see his wife with several interruptions by death to continue their chess match. Not a whole lot happens plot-wise as the plot isn't all that important in the greater scheme of this film.

As is typical for a foreign film, I didn't really notice much in the way of the acting. I suppose it was good, but I wasn't wowed by any of it. The actor playing death was kind of creepy, so that is probably a plus. As this film is Swedish, I haven't heard of any of its actors.

As a "serious" film, the film is meant to be analyzed. Since I've only seen it once and haven't spent much time thinking about it, most of the films themes went over my head. The chess match between the knight and death is probably a metaphor suggesting that everyone is playing a chess match with death - the better one plays the longer one lives. As the title suggests (seven seals is an allusion to the book of Revelations), the film has a fairly substantial religious connotation. The film is pretty harsh on religion as the clergy offer no relief to the plague sufferers and are represented as being no better than thieves.

While this film is a masterpiece of both Swedish cinema and cinema in general, I didn't find it nearly that enjoyable. It's a difficult film to watch once and appreciate so I might enjoy it more after a second viewing. Still, I found it better than other serious films like The Rules of the Game. I'd recommend this to someone looking for something complicated, but it's probably not a good choice for someone looking for an action-packed film.

72/100
C-

UP NEXT: To be determined.