The Seventh Seal DVD Review - Page Three

I always find the scene depicting the events leading up to the burning of the accused witch to be harrowing. Although it is a stylized scene, it nonetheless has a visceral edge to it. The cruelty and horror are painful to watch. I feel that it is a tribute to Bergman's skills as a filmmaker that this scene is so difficult to take.

Later, the Knight resumes his chess game with Death. Joseph detects Death's presence, and he and Mary hastily prepare to leave with their son. At the chessboard, the Knight deliberately moves his arm in such a way that his cloak knocks over many of the chess pieces. Death restores the pieces to their previous positions on the board, but while he is thus distracted, the "holy family" gets away in their wagon. Death goes on to win the chess game and tells the Knight, "When next we meet, the hour will strike for you and your friends." But the Knight is now better prepared to die because he has performed a meaningful act by helping the "holy family" escape Death.

The Knight, the Squire, and others continue on to the Knight's castle, where they are met by the Knight's wife. When Death comes to take them, the Knight prays, "God, you who are somewhere, who must be somewhere, have mercy on us." The defiant Squire says, "I could have purged your worries about eternity, but now it's too late. But feel, to the very end, the triumph of being alive!" "Quiet, quiet!" pleads the Knight's wife, to which the Squire responds, "Yes, but under protest." The young woman whose life was saved by the Squire kneels and utters her only words in the film, "It is finished."

Meanwhile, Mary, Joseph, and Michael have made it safely through the night. Before they move on, Joseph looks up at the horizon where he sees in silhouette Death leading a "solemn dance away towards the dark lands." But Mary thinks Joseph is hallucinating again, and she lovingly chides him, "You with your visions!" As the movie ends, Mary carries little Michael and Joseph puts his arm around Mary as they walk toward the dawn.

What I like best about The Seventh Seal is Bergman's visual sensibility, which is basically the same as that found in the old silent movies. Bergman carefully composes individual shots for maximum impact: the figure of Death standing on the seashore; the semi-circular arrangement of the five participants in the "secular communion"; the Dance of Death silhouetted against a gloomy sky. Bergman also makes masterful use of the slow dissolve: the shot of the Knight beginning his chess game with Death dissolves to dark clouds broken by a band of light; the image of the procession of the flagellants gradually disappears into the dusty ground they have just walked over; the face of the young woman who says "It is finished" recedes as the uplifted, sunlit face of Bibi Andersson emerges. It seems to me the visual style of the film is perfectly suited to its thought-provoking themes.

I find the performances of the principal actors in The Seventh Seal to be astonishingly effective. Max von Sydow, although only 27 years old when the film was made, brings the necessary gravitas to the role of the Knight. Gunnar Bjornstrand manages to portray the Squire as a character whose presence grows gradually stronger as the movie progresses: He makes what I initially thought would be the story of the Knight turn out to be equally the story of the Squire. Bengt Ekerot accomplishes the difficult feat of successfully personifying Death, and Bibi Andersson is luminous as the loving, life-affirming Mary. And Nils Poppe made me feel very sympathetic toward his sweet-natured, but all-too-human, character of Joseph.

As much as I love The Seventh Seal, I have to admit it has some jarring moments, most of which are presumably due to the film's meager budget. Among the flaws are: Bergman doesn't bother to hide how clumsy Nils Poppe looks tossing only two balls, when his character Joseph is supposed to be a skilled juggler; a close look at the silhouettes of the six people in the Dance of Death scene -- one of the most stunning images in all of cinema -- reveals the presence of four men and two women, which seems inconsistent with anything else in the film; and the scene where the "holy family" hunkers down while they wait for the Angel of Doom to rush past looks and sounds like something from a children's movie. But I think the film's shortcomings are relatively minor, and I find them easy to overlook when weighed against the movie's overall power and majesty. I have seen The Seventh Seal many times already, and I plan to watch this masterpiece of world cinema many more times over the years.

The Seventh Seal is available on both VHS and DVD.

Selected Special Features on the Criterion Collection DVD

• Film Historian Peter Cowie's Commentary
• Illustrated Bergman Filmography
• Improved English Subtitles
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