The Seventh Seal

Det sjunde inseglet
File:The Seventh Seal poster.png
Directed by	Ingmar Bergman
Written by	Ingmar Bergman
Produced by	Allan Ekelund
Starring	Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe
Cinematography	Gunnar Fischer
Edited by	Lennart Wallén
Distributed by	Svensk Filmindustri
Release dates	February 16, 1957 (Sweden) October 13 1958 (U.S)
Running time	96 min.
Language	Swedish
Budget	$150,000

Det sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal) is a 1957 film directed by Ingmar Bergman, most notable for the scene in which a medieval knight (played by Max von Sydow) plays chess with the personification of Death, with his life resting on the outcome of the game. The film was the winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, in 1957.

The title is a reference to the passage from the Book of Revelation used both at the very start of the film, and again towards the end, beginning with the words "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour."

Wild Strawberries, also considered one of Bergman's best films by many film critics/scholars, was also released in 1957, making it a year of prodigious output for Ingmar Bergman.

Bergman stated in an interview that the film had helped him overcome his fear of death.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler A knight (von Sydow) returns from the Crusades and finds that his home country is ravaged by the plague. To his dismay, he discovers that Death (Bengt Ekerot) has come for him too. In order to buy time he challenges Death to a chess match, which allows him to reach his home and be reunited with his wife. The knight's faith is war-weathered, and this theme is stressed in one of the greatest scenes in the movie: the knight gives confession to a priest about his doubts whether God actually exists, he tells the priest how he challenged death to a game of chess and how he plans to win only to find that the "priest" is actually Death. The movie has very Kierkegaardan themes on death and meaning (see Kierkegaard on despair) and thus it is quite existential. In another powerful scene of a witch burning, the knight is asked by his squire whether he sees in the victim's eyes God or a vacancy. The disquieted knight refuses to acknowledge the victim's and, in a way, his own emptiness despite his doubts about God. The knight realises that he would rather be broken in faith, constantly suffering doubt, than to recognize a life without meaning.

During the fateful journey they encounter several features of medieval society and the way it dealt with the fear of death: penitence of flagellators, the burning of a witch and travelling actors. Bergman is particularly critical in his depiction of the clergymen, who profit from the atmosphere of terror engendered by the plague. They offer no spiritual comfort to their people, and are represented as little better than thieves. Bergman contrasts the despairing unbelief of the knight and the bitterness of his squire (Gunnar Björnstrand) with the simple spiritual faith of the acrobat player Jof (Nils Poppe) and his young wife Mia (Bibi Andersson), who together with their child may be symbolic of the Holy family.

Eventually, the knight achieves the significant act which gives his life meaning, by enabling the escape of the young couple and their child. While the knight and his followers are led away over the hills in a medieval dance of death, the young family continue their journey.

Relation to medieval Sweden

The medieval Sweden portrayed in this movie is not very accurate. For example, the self-flagellators never existed in Sweden, and the theme of life and death as portrayed in the movie is more typical of existentialism in the 1950s than to the beliefs of medieval Swedes.

An image of a man playing chess with death in the form of a skeleton exists in a medieval church painting [1]from the 1480s by Albertus Pictor which can be found in Täby kyrka, Täby, north of Stockholm. Bergman has referred to this painting as the inspirational source for this scene in the movie.

Parodies of The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal with its reflection upon death (and the meaning of life) became something of a figurehead for "serious" European films and as such has figured in several other films, such as the trailer for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Death also makes an appearance in Woody Allen's film Love and Death. Woody Allen also makes direct fun of the film in his short story, "Death Knocks" in which a man plays Gin rummy for a chance to live another day. More recently the Death character from the film played a role in the Arnold Schwarzenegger extravaganza Last Action Hero, this time Death was played by Sir Ian McKellen.

The concept of playing games with Death has been used (and spoofed) many times since Bergman's movie. George Coe and Anthony Lover made a short film called De Duva: The Dove that deliberately spoofed this famous movie scene, in which a young couple challenge Death to a game of badminton. The dialogue in the film sounds like Swedish but is in reality a hodge-podge of Swedish, English, and Yiddish (when the dove poops on Death's robe, he says "Jag justa had dis shmatte washte" or some such.) English subtitles are used to further give the impression of a "foreign" film.

The scene has also been spoofed in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, in which Bill and Ted beat Death at Battleship and Twister, among other games; and Death - who loses all of them - constantly changes the terms: best two out of three, best three out of five, etc.

In the British sitcom Bottom, in the episode APOCALYPSE, the character Eddie Hitler dresses up as death to scare his roommate, Richard Richard. Pleading for his life, Richard offers to play a game of chess to save his life.

The Animaniacs episode "Meatballs or Consequences" further spoofed the scene, featuring Wakko Warner as he finds himself dying as a result of eating too many Swedish meatballs. He encounters the Grim Reaper, but chooses to play a game of checkers for his life instead of chess.

Terry Pratchett's Death from the Discworld book series is also reputed to be based on the character from the film. The Discworld version of Death dreads playing symbolic last games of chess because "he could never remember how the little horse-shaped ones are supposed to move."

Flash cartoon Weebl and Bob parodied this concept in their episode "Art". Death is portrayed by Monkey, and the characters are sitting on a chessboard, while Weebl & Bob bemoan (naturally) their lack of pie.

The band DevilDriver has a song, "I Could Care Less", which was also a single, that centers on the idea of challenging Death to a game, with the lyrics "Don't you see our lives are on trial now? And if we lose, we're going straight to Hell". The music video for the song features a similar concept, with the band's singer, Dez Fafara, playing Death in a game of cards.

In British comedy Dead Ringers, England manager Sven Goran Eriksson is shown playing chess in a spoof of The Seventh Seal.

In the cartoon The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Grim (the Grim Reaper, a scythe wielding skeleton who wears a black cloak) challenges Billy and Mandy to a limbo contest for the soul of Billy's decrepit old hamster. He was so sure that he would win, and said to them that if they beat him, he will be their best friend forever. They won.

Grant Morrison's 2004 Vertigo mini-series Seaguy, contains the title character playing chess with a representation of death.

See also

• Middle Ages in film

External links

• Det Sjunde inseglet at IMDb
• The Seventh Seal at the Arts & Faith Top100 Spiritually Significant Films list
• Peter Cowie essay at criterionco.com
• Rotten Tomatoes review links on film
• Analysis of film from They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
• Dennis DeNitto's analysis of the film