The Seventh Seal Assignment

I found the start of the film very unique due to the biblical references. The shot of the heavens in the opening scene is interesting because it's a symbol for the first revelation. The camera shot is a long shot and shows the giant sea as well as the open sky as a background. This represents how humans feel kind of lost in such a giant place. The music in the opening is very loud as it gets increasingly more intense. Throughout the first scene, the music goes abruptly from very loud to silent to increase the drama in the character development. The girl in the film is dressed in all white which represents purity and innocence. Even though the film is in black and white, it is still apparent the contrast in the characters clothes that they are wearing opposing colors of black and white. Holy music plays as Joseph sees the "virgin mary". There is a religious parallel since his wife's name is mary, and they named their son Michael. Michael is an arch angel who brings God's ideas and works to earth. The use of the camera is used very cleverly to always cast a shadow on one side of Block's face. He is struggling between the ideas of good and evil, and if god really exists. He wants to see proof of God on earth, but he can never find it. The church uses fear to gain power, and the image of the skull to instill the idea that death is always present in everyones life. Love is an important theme that is threaded throughout the film.

When Block was in the church it seemed to be a place of evil where they tried to scare people into religion, chain and sacrifice those who go against the churches will, and is filled with death. Block even relates God to a plague that infects people and never releases them from his grip. Block also calls Death a traitor as if they were on the same side at one time. The man who steals from the dead and attempts to rape the woman was at one time a religious man, Jok even said that this man is the reason they were gone for ten years and wasted their lives. I think the film is trying to portray good and evil within the church.

The film seems to be primarily about the the silence of God and our relationship with death. It uses strong imagery to show the struggle many people go through when faced with any type of uncertainty in life. This imagery is embodied in the scene of Bloch playing chess with death. Even though the movie is dull at first this imagery along with the philosophically influential dialogue makes it very difficult to turn away. Bergman’s presentation of these philosophical issues very well done. The film is so masterfully arranged that it does not overwhelm its viewers.

The opening scene really grabbed my eye. The words from "The Book of Revelations" are used to show where the title comes from. It says, "And when the Lamb has opened the seventh seal, there was a silence in heaven about the space of half an hour" (Revelation 8:1). This is where we get the motif that God is silent. This frustrates a Knight, named Antonious Block, because he is struggling to find religion and the meaning of life in his own life. The silence of God is a major theme in the movie because it causes frustration for one of its main characters in Block. A Black and white shadow is casted upon Block's face to show his fight of Good vs Evil. This begs the question, which is a theme throughout the film: Does God exist?

"The Seventh Seal" deals with the inner debate within one's self between faith and desire. The time period the film is set in is a perfect example of this dilemma as the Black Plague forced many to turn to the Church for guidance. With so much death and despair surrounding them, people looked towards religion as a final form of hope in such desperate times. Others, such as the knight in "The Seventh Seal" were affected in an opposite manner. If God did exist, why would he allow such pain and suffering to occur? This brings up what I feel will play a major role in the film, does God exist, and if he does, does he play an active or passive role in the world?

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In the beginning of the film, the chess figures are black and white. Bloch uses the white figures while Death uses black. I find it interesting how the game of chess represents our natural tendency to try and cheat death. We are afraid of the afterlife (or the "not afterlife", even), so we fight to stay alive. The shot of them playing the game immediately reminded me of The Princess Bride, where the loser must drink poison. We are constantly surrounded by Death, but we must learn that life goes on despite its presence. If you let your mind linger on the constant presence of Death, you can go crazy, much like the man questioning God's presence. (I believe it's Bloch? I'm not certain). I also found it interesting that Joseph spit out the water. He is obviously a good and moral man, but he is able to see the beauty of life beyond personal religion.

I found the scene at the confessional with the "priest" really intriguing. The shots away from the face and the use of shadows was interesting. It shows that death and life are almost interchangeable. The music used throughout the film was also quite interesting. The actors wife, all dressed in white, resembles purity and holiness. Death is also a part of life. With all this religious insinuation, what is real? I really think that this storyline has mythical references, but the characters embody realism. The knight appears a prisoner of his own reality, his own dream and hope for love and life; which is depicted in the opening scene of the film. This scene is opened with a serene sky, low tide, and a hawk flying over him. I think the hawk symbolizes peace and safety, and that the hawk is his protection. Once the hawk leaves, death is imminent and it appears shortly after his departure. The knight appears to be a complex character but in reality is simple; he is just searching for God, as he confessed in the confessional. The overarching tones and symbolism in this film so far, are the question is whether love, life, and death are necessary and which ones are dependent on the others to exist.

In "The Seventh Seal" the people are trying to deal with the plague in different ways. In the beginning the character is faced with death and they play a game of chess. There are many religious references where the characters are turning to the church or their religion to free them or protect them from the plague. Others, like the artist, are trying to deal with it by making people feel better about it. He paints "Dancing with Death" where the people are dancing with a deathly figure to dull the fear people have of death. Outside of the church the people are creating an aroma to keep death and the plague away. There are many ways the townspeople are trying to deal with death and it seems to be overwhelming the lives of everyone.

The part of the film that I was most interested by was the group of religious people coming through the town in the middle of the play. They are chanting a religious song and carrying large wooden crosses. They are carrying whips and hitting themselves as well as other sinners. The whole scene is very intense as the people of the town watch in terror. More and more people join in prayer as they attempt to repent. The leader says to the town that everyone is being punished by God and will die from the black death. It is interesting to me that he is able to strike fear into so many people with just religious connotations. Earlier in the film, it was shown that the devil is manifested in the church. There is lots of smoke that swirls around in the scenes which almost masks the characters. The play right before the group comes in is singing about death. It's almost like a prelude to whats about to happen. They're all wearing black cloaks and later discuss that it's judgement day. The day that the angels will come down and graves will open. Joseph is later seen in the woods with Marry and Michael, and he rants on about how he sees the knight and death playing chess together. Marry is worried about him since she can't see it. ALl of these religious aspects really push the theme of good versus evil forward into the viewing audiences mind. It's almost like theres something else deeper that isn't so obvious that we should be seeing.

This movie is fairly difficult to review because on the surface it is very slow going. However on second glance it is full of deeper meaning and extraordinary symbolism. I found interesting the scene in which death cuts down the tree, then a squirrel immediately jumps up upon the tree stump. It reminds us that death is a part of our lives whether we realize it or not. Death will come at some point no matter what. In terms of the way this idea was presented, I feel that the director was aiming toward a sort of comic relief. Between the squirrel and the odd image of death cutting down a tree I felt that there was an underlying humor to this idea of life and death in the way it was displayed.

I found it really interesting when they cover the female victims eyes after she receives water and opium. They are in a way keeping her from "seeing no evil". He feels bad for her situation and understands that she truly has nothing worthwhile to share. I also found it intriguing and symbolic when the knight ate the strawberries and drank from the bowl of milk. This symbolizes love, sharing and kindness. Milk is the fruit of the Gods', so he is receiving great gifts. The scene of the religious people also caught my eye. I found it bizarre that they consequently whipped the indivudual in front of them, and claimed that God was punishing them with the black death and that as a last act of penance, they were extracting their sins and purifying themselves.

I'm sure you will not be surprised to know that I find various connections to Harry Potter regarding the themes of both Death and good vs. evil. J.K Rowling writes "to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure" as well as "we've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are." Death cannot be avoided. Throughout the movie, the Knight is trying to escape from Death by playing the game of chess. Towards the end, he seems more comfortable with Death. I also found the significance of the number seven to be quite interesting. Most obviously is the Seventh Seal itself, but there were also seven main friends. Biblically, the book of Revelations (where the main Seventh Seal quote comes from) is built around the number seven. There are seven letters to seven churches, seven angels (which could be represented by the seven friends in the movie), seven trumpets, seven kings, seven mountains, and so on.

Additionally, I like how the movie presents the idea that God doesn't favor anyone, nor does Death. In the Last Supper scene, the survivors come from multiple social groups. There's the Blacksmith, the Knight, and the actors. They understand that God isn't always easy to find; they must look for him, because even "in the darkest of times, one must always remember to turn on the light" (also a J.K. Rowling quote...). Death is easy to find because it is constantly lurking in our lives, waiting for the perfect moment to jump out and pull us into its embrace. So, each time there is a beam of light in the movie (like after the priest dies, for example), it is not only a symbol of hope, by of God sending a sign that he is still there.

Out of the films we have seen this year, this has been my least favorite film yet. However this film still had some diamonds in the rough, like how Block purposely distracts death to let the family escape his clutches and how people believe that death will let them escape because of their background. In the film the actor believes that death will let him go since he is an actor, but death simply does not care and takes him. The last part i found interesting was the dance of death that was painted in the church and the ending of the film where the people were following death to symbolize the dance of death.

Bergman, the director of "The Seventh Seal", has a lot of incite on the morality of people and religion. Bergman doesn't believe that people need religion to have good morals. The atheist and the knight are the most moral people in their movie, finding their happiness in the joys of life. The priest and the church use the religion immorally resulting in the priest being "possessed" by the plague. Bergman shows the church as a jail in the beginning trapping people by the fear that they will not be able to get into heaven.

Throughout the film, there is a reoccurring motif turned into a theme that is "The Silence of God." It is actually an ironic theme that not many people can come to terms with and accept. Bergman uses this theme because he has an idea that God works in ways that are mysterious and impossible to figure out. He shows the confusion God has on individuals through the knight, Block. Block is tortured by Death looming over him at every turn and all he wants is for God to show him the right path and lead him into the sky or heaven as seen in the opening scene. However, by having this theme of "Silence of God" Bergman shows that he must accept the fact that God is not always an easy thing to figure out and sometimes Silence is the only way God can truly help the individual.

The third and final part of "The Seventh Seal" that we watched today really brought the entire story together for me. Until this point, I was fairly confused as to why characters were behaving the ways they were, and what symbols stood for what. At the beginning of the film I felt as though Bergman was trying to make a point that religion would lead to the downfall of man. However, after seeing the film in it's entirety, I realize that Bergman criticizes religion as well as those who do not believe in it. It is shown how religion can corrupt a person, such as the Priest, as well as enhance lives, in the case of Joseph, Mary, and their son Michael. On the other side we can see how those unaffected by religion can still be just as, if not more moral than those who follow it, as demonstrated by the Knight and his Squire. At the same time the film causes us to question if it is actually possible to believe in nothing but "space".