The Seventh Seal

In the opening scene, Antonius and Jons awake from a rocky slumber on the coast of the ocean; it’s as if they’ve been spit from the sea. A voice intones a passage from the book of revelations, "And when the lamb had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven…." Just then, Death (Bengt Ekerot) appears in a clever dissolve: his white, mask-like face replacing the early morning sun. He’s dressed in a black robe, like Scalia ready for judgment. Upon realizing that Death has come for him, Antonius cleverly talks him into playing a game of chess for the highest possible stakes: his own life. Death agrees (gotta unwind after a long night reaping souls). Fittingly, Death plays black.

The story unfolds as a long journey home. Along the way Antonius and Jons meet many medieval folk doing medieval things. These episodes include a run-in with some flagellants, a witch-burning, and other un-hallmark moments.

One scene that nicely encapsulates the main themes of the movie is when Antonius and Jons stop at a church. Antonius immediately goes to pray in front of the crucifix and to confess his sins (to death, as it turns out!) while Jons chats up an artisan working on a fresco (of the dance of death) and shares a bottle of gin. These cross-cut scenes clearly lay out the contrasting attitudes of Antonius and Jons, and mankind more generally. Antonius is inquisitive, faithful (yet prone to doubting God), but ultimately idealistic about life and his chances for beating death; conversely, Jons is a skeptic and a hedonist, believing that life is all there is, and therefore disdainful of the church and its promises of heaven. Put bluntly: Antonius is faith, Jons is reason. But by the end of the film both Antonius and Jons must shuffle off their mortal coils because Death finally checkmates Antonius.

If you haven’t seen this movie, and any of the above sounds vaguely familiar, you may have seen one of the many parodies and references to The Seventh Seal. Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey is perhaps the most memorable, pitting the dudes against death -- not in chess -- but Battleship and Twister. "Dude – you totally melvined death!" Ahh… the classics.

Despite Bergman’s reputation for being a morbid, inaccessible filmmaker, I found the Seventh Seal to be surprisingly engaging and funny. Not funny ha-ha, but Bergman’s method is to explore the different ways that humans deal with existential dread. One of these is certainly laughter. Others include heroism, religion, food, wine, song, love, and lust. They are all on display here: reminders of our humanity in the face of death.