THE CINEMA OF ART: The Seventh Seal

Hey guys!

So, last night I watched Ingmar Bergman's 1957 masterpiece, The Seventh Seal. The film is largely in the Swedish language. and is perhaps one of the most deeply profound, complex, and brilliant films I have seen. 

The film follows a knight, Antonius Block (Max Von Sydow), and his squire, J (Gunnar Bjornstrand), as they return home from the Crusades. He comes home to find his country ravaged by the plague. When he arrives, he is greeted by Death, who has been following him for quite a while. Antonius challenges Death to a game of chess to prolong his life so that he can look for answers regarding his questions about God. All the while, the Knight and his squire journey throughout the land gathering a troupe of different people and witnessing the horrors and the cruelty that the plague has brought about in people. 

So today, I will try to explain two of the most prominent themes of the film: God and Humanity. 

SPOILERS FOR A 60 SOMETHING-YEAR-OLD FILM FOLLOW BELOW

 God

To understand the themes of God in the film, we must first understand where Bergman comes from. Bergman was the son of a Protestant Priest, so his upbringing and childhood were fairly religious and church centric. However, he found himself growing distant from the Church; though it would be unfair to call him an atheist, he did end up gaining the epithet "The Protestant Atheist". This was because he spent a fair few films questioning the notion of a God, something he did very much so in his own real life. This is also something that the protagonist of the film does, and in this sense, Bergman is the Knight. 

As the knight lands on the beach, he finds himself talking to death. The existence of the supernatural is pointed towards in this part. However, in a later scene, when he is making confession to a priest (or at least, he thinks is a priest but is in fact Death), he says:

"Is it so terribly inconceivable to comprehend God with one's senses? Why does he hide in a cloud of half-promises and unseen miracles?" 

In this scene, the Knight, having returned from the Crusades, which was a Holy War, sees his land ravaged by the plague, his people desperate and dying, his own literal Death in front of him, he wonders whether God exists and is indifferent to humankind, or if God doesn't exist, or something else? And with this, Bergman shows his own internal battle, his own questions that he had at that time, having seen the brutalities of the Second World War. Does God really exist?

The film has an interesting stance on this. Throughout the film, the Knight searches for the answer. He ponders this question. When they are met with an army of preachers who are asking people to repent and think on their sins, he wonders what kind of a God would ask his own people to go through such immense suffering, carrying backbreaking crosses, whipping themselves, begging for mercy. After this scene, the next time he plays chess with Death, he asks Death the same question, and Death claims he does not know either. In his desperation, he even asks a witch, who is to be burnt at the stake, who people claim has slept with the Devil, where he could find the Devil, to which she replies 

 

"Look in my eyes and you will find him... Do you see?"

The Knight stares back in bewilderment and only replies with 

"All I see is terror"

With this, the camera shifts to the witch's perspective as she burnt, and through her eyes, we see Death standing near the pyre. 

Now in my interpretation, what I think Bergman is trying to say here is that people often spend too much time worrying about uncertainties like whether or not God exists. The answer to such a question, no one can really know, but the only certainty of life is that whatever lives must die. So instead of pondering over uncertainties, one should live life the way they want to, because our time on this Earth is finite. 

The film's version, I think, is that some variation of the supernatural exists but whether or not God exists is irrelevant. 

Humanity

Exploring the themes of humanity is an important part of the film as it takes place in one of the most morally gray time periods in the history of the world. We have the Crusades going on, and at the same time, a devastating plague ravages the country. 

Most of the characters in this film follow the same moral color palate as the time period - gray. There is J, the knight's squire, who, on the one hand, saves a girl from physical harm, and on the other hand, takes said girl as a housekeeper without her consent. You have the blacksmith Plog, who on the one hand is extremely sad that his wife left him, but on the other hand, is willing to kill a person based on nothing but hearsay. Such characters make it an incredible watch. 

The two characters who are towards the bad spectrum of humanity, but not evil, are the blacksmith's wife and Tyan, the acting troupe's manager. The wife, for first not being faithful to her husband, and then turning on the lover she ran away to save her own life, while  Tyan leaves behind his acting troupe to elope with the blacksmith's wife. 

The only character I find towards the evil side of the spectrum is one named Raval. Raval was a theologian who turned a thief in times of the plague. He stole jewelry off dead people and even threatened abuse against a woman. Later in the film, he takes advantage of an emotionally troubled, blacksmith to frame an innocent actor, saying that the actor had run away with the blacksmith's wife. Thankfully, J was there to stop him both times. 

Lastly, I find three truly good characters in the film: Jof, the innocent actor, his wife Lisa, and their one-year-old son. They are the only truly innocent characters in the film. We know this because Jof is just an actor who is in love with his craft. He has no vices, he has only two loves, his family and his craft. Throughout the film, there is a side plot line about him having visions. Most people dismiss these as just hallucinations, but he is convinced they are real.  In the beginning, he has a vision of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus, but it is dismissed as simply his imagination. However, we know that he does truly have visions, as he does see the literal embodiment of death on the hill as he and the actors dance on it in a haunting last scene. Incidentally, these are the only characters whose soul Death does not reap.

Finally, this leaves the Knight... Where does the main character of the story, the Knight come in? And to be honest, I do not know. We know the Knight regrets his actions during the Crusades, as pointed out by J in his conversation with Raval, but does that make him a bad person? He remains impassive to the atrocities around him but provides shelter and cover to those traveling through the forest and later in his castle. So the knight remains a morally ambiguous character. 

Conclusion

The title of the film comes from a passage in the Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible. The book talks of Apocalyptic visions and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This is apt, considering the time period of the film, things certainly looked apocalyptic, as they do now. There is political turmoil all across the world, and at the same time, a plague ravages it. In conclusion, what I took from this film is that, whether or not God exists is hardly a question. To ponder such questions would be a waste of time for Death is coming for all our souls, and that is a fact. So in the limited time, we have on the Earth, we must choose to be kind to people, so if it so happens that a God does exist, he may have mercy on our soul.