The Seventh Seal (1957): Review
Stub • 539 Words • Film, 2025 • 12/05/2025
⚠️ This post contains a rougher cut of my thoughts on the topic and may be updated in the future. Please forgive any mistakes or lack of polish!
A medieval knight plays a game of chess with the personification of Death who has come to take his life.
There are 567 words in this article, and it will probably take you less than 3 minutes to read it.
This article was published 2025-12-05 00:00:00 -0500, which makes this post and me old when I published it.
Technique
Pacing-wise it started rather slow and I almost dropped it but I am glad that I stuck it out because I really enjoyed this movie. I think that because of my Catholic background I was able to really resonate with Block and his doubts about religion.
The craft of the movie was of course beautiful.
- There were a lot of striking shots
- Because of the black and white there were some beautifully lit scenes that had all the much more impact
- I liked the dissolves, sometimes multiple in quick succession
- While it did follow an arc, I wouldn’t say there was much of a story, mostly little moments to inspire emotions
- good sound design
- Although I did find it strange that there wasn’t really much foley sound
- Dramatic orchestral score that seemed very much of the time, but I enjoyed it
- Good blocking
- face to camera shots felt dissonant to me, but I did enjoy the monologuing
Themes and Motifs
The parts about faith and religion were very profound. I wouldn’t say that they were entirely novel because they did echo a lot of thoughts I had before so it was cool to see them explored on screen.
Coexistence of tragedy and levity:
- While I wouldn’t say that this movie was overly funny, there were some lighter comedic moments to balance out a lot of the tragedy that was happening during the film.
Religion:
- the silence of God
- the crusades
- faith and dogma
- religion as a business (the painter talking about the symbiotic relationship between his art and the church)
- the spirituality of the fool (can see demons, angels, death, etc.)
Death:
- fear of death and religion
- Block praying to God as Death takes him at the end
- the fear of death as fear of the unknown
- death as the frustration of projects (the director)
- everything seems meaningless in front of death (cancelled on account of being dead)
- death and dignity
- bargaining (playing chess, begging for life, etc.)
- the man dying alone with no reassurance from the plague because he was wicked
- life after death (squirrel on tree after death cuts it down)
Life and Humanity:
- the kindness of humans (the sharing of the milk and strawberries)
- life and sex and pleasure (the director running away with the woman)
- cruelty of humanity and cowardice (the man who convinced the Knight and Squire to go on the Crusade)
- music, dance, and creation (everyone is writing songs??)
- milk and strawberries as life and nature
The black plague and the end of times:
- the self-flagellating doomsday cult
- the man in the bar saying that it’s the end of times
- People seemed somewhat casual about it because they were probably ignorant or felt like it wouldn’t reach them
There were a lot of misogynistic bits and I don’t know enough about Bergman to know if it’s just a result of the characters. But even then, not sure what statement is trying to be made.
- the burning of the witch (they do try to help her though)
- saving the woman from rape (but then still forces her to labor)
- a lot of dialogue with the vibe of “can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em”
- the duplicitous smith’s wife and how it’s played