Seventh Seal

Pros: A deep story about a life with and without purpose.
Cons: One must perhaps shift mental gears to absorb the symbols and the message.

One of the great films of all time, The Seventh Seal, was re-released not long ago as a part of the Criterion Collection of DVDs of notable films, so I decided to get a copy and look at it again after some 30+ years. I first saw it at a film ...

Pros: Bergman at his contemplative, brilliant best.
Cons: It doesn't quite tell you the meaning of life.

There are very few films that I watch more than twice. I do tend to see a lot of movies a couple of times, but more than twice signifies, in my book, an adoration or complete obsession with a film. I've seen The Seventh Seal five times.
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Pros: Cinematography. Message. Story.
Cons: Few.

Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal is widely known as that movie where that dude plays Death in chess comma man, but chess actually contributes little to the film. You might go in thinking, "Wow, Max von Sydow... chess... this might become ...

Pros: Bergman's Direction/Script, Plot, Cinematography, Look, Editing, Music, & Cast.
Cons: None.

One of the greatest directors to change the face cinema internationally, Sweden's Ingmar Bergman has been one of the key figures that has changed cinema. Known for his exploration of existentialism and themes of morality, faith, and loneliness. Bergman ...

Pros: Great cinematography; story holds viewer interest; addresses profound issues of human existence
Cons: Insights meaningful but not especially deep

Ingmar Bergman’s film The Seventh Seal is a spiritual quest in the form of an allegory. It was produced in 1957 – the very same year the Bergman produced another of his greatest works, Wild Strawberries (see my review at ...

Pros: A film that masterfully takes on man's greatest fear--death. Requires multiple viewings.
Cons: Requires multiple viewings.

One of the many creepy moments in The Seventh Seal comes when the actor Skat dons a skull mask and speaks as death: “Your life, O fool, hangs by a thread. Short is your day.” Skat faces the camera as he speaks his lines, directly addressing the...

Pros: cinematography, originality
Cons: pretentious direction, overripe imagery

"The Seventh Seal" is a pensive art film set in the Middle Ages. The success of the film earned international acclaim for Swedish director and writer Ingmar Bergman. But today, the fixation with death and rejection of the hereafter, as well as...

Pros: A masterwork of modern cinema.
Cons: The subtitles, not really the fault of the film.

This may seem a bit obtuse, but I believe that the primary purpose of poetry(that's a nasty bit of alliteration), is to confuse. I say this because only when our minds are thrown into turmoil do we step back and truly evaluate our established perceptions...

Pros: Great story, great dialogue, deep and meaningful theme,
Cons: may be too slow for some,

The film tells the story of a knight who returns to his homeland while the plague is circulating. Religious zealots have come to the belief that the plague is a punishment dealt directly from God. Antonious, the knight, awakes to a visit from death ...

Pros: Beautiful, meaningful, and superbly acted. One of Bergman's classics
Cons: If you don't know Swedish, you have to make due with the subtitles.

Few films ask us to probe the essential meaning of existence and the depth of the human condition with the directness of Bergman's Seventh Seal. The action takes place in the aftermath of the Crusades, wars fought with little purpose and few concrete ...

Pros: Beautiful imagery, powerful philosophy
Cons: Swedish films about death aren't for everyone

Yes, this is the movie with the scene of a man playing chess with Death, but that is only the beginning of this powerful tale that tries to capture an entire philosophy of human existence in an hour and a half, and mostly achieves it. Written and...

Pros: incredibly deep storyline; THE existentialist film
Cons: if you've never seen a bergman film before, beware...odd

An existentialists dream. Bergman's best film creates a world where death himself can be seen, heard, and debated with. The
Knight, Antonius Block, goes so far as to play a game of chess with death to delay the inevitable. Seeing the various...

Pros: You can't go wrong with this one.
Cons: I don't speak Swedish so I must read the subtitles.

No wonder Woody Allen uses wholesale chunks of Bergman's movies. No wonder he attempts to capture the style, technique, and nuance. Even diluted they lend an air of class and art that is distinctive and unique.

Of course, comparing the two is...

Pros: Cinematography, Imagery
Cons: Too small to note.

The Seventh Seal opens with a lone bird against a divided sky of darkness and light. The viewer is soon drawn into a film ripe with Christian symbolism and apocalyptic visions.

Although Bergman does not follow the Book of Revelations...

Pros: Brilliant and Macabre.
Cons: Takes alot of Thought

The Seventh Seal is one of the most darkly moving and brilliant pictures ever made. Directed by the brilliant Ingmar Bergamn, The Seventh Seal is a movie that reflects all the darkest fears that lay deep in a persons mind. Death, lonliness, lack of God...