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The Seventh Seal

Released Oct 13, 1956 1h 36m Drama Fantasy List
93% Tomatometer 72 Reviews 93% Popcornmeter 25,000+ Ratings
When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death (Bengt Ekerot) to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof (Nils Poppe) and his wife, Mia (Bibi Andersson), and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.
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The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal

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Critics Consensus

Narratively bold and visually striking, The Seventh Seal brought Ingmar Bergman to the world stage -- and remains every bit as compelling today.

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Critics Reviews

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Jonas Mekas Village Voice Obsessed with the ideas of love, life, death, good and evil, [Bergman] mediates as he goes, taking in symbols, in parables and images that are often of breathtaking beauty. Apr 20, 2022 Full Review Guardian You can hunt about in the history of the cinema and bring up a distant cousin or two for Bergman's great work. Yet, when all the delving is done, this film remains something quite distinct, a wonderful film which is not quite like any other. Mar 21, 2018 Full Review Elliott Stein Village Voice Bergman's visually striking medieval morality play [was] the work that gained him an international reputation. Jul 23, 2013 Full Review David Harris Spectrum Culture Like many of his greatest works, Bergman uses The Seventh Seal as an existentialist vehicle, exploring a landscape where God may have turned his back on humanity, leading to disillusionment, conflict and destruction. Jan 23, 2024 Full Review Yasser Medina Cinefilia A formidable film in which Bergman, with symbols and metaphors, builds a philosophical treatise that points out the impossibility of man to defeat death. [Full review in Spanish] Rated: 8/10 Dec 13, 2023 Full Review Sean Axmaker Stream on Demand Arguably the most famous of Ingmar Bergman’s films and certainly his most iconic, 'The Seventh Seal' is Bergman at his most allegorical. Oct 6, 2023 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Isa B One of the absolute greatest motion pictures ever made by the maker of masterpieces. Ingmar Bergman was one of the top 2 or 3 greatest filmmakers to ever do it. I think of him as the most complete filmmaker of all time. He had a knack for making great films as he made so many. I have The Seventh Seal at #4 on my list. It is a great concept, well acted, well directed and such a brave piece to do back in the 1950s. The speculation regarding the origin of man and God vs. Atheism. Masterfully crafted. The Seventh Seal is a film that every cinefile must see. Check it out! 100/100 🏆 Rated 5 out of 5 stars 10/06/24 Full Review Mix R It's a very deep movie, with hidden symbolism, great quotes and capturing scenes of chess duel. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 09/29/24 Full Review Alejandro E The existence of God and the inevitability of death, seen through symbolism, are what make Ingmar Bergmar distinctive. Even without having a great mind, it does not require much effort to find the flavor, which becomes indefinable. The sequences of the nobleman playing chess against the messenger of death are anthology. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/10/24 Full Review nick s I think it helps to be religious or to have a fascination with religion in order to enjoy this film. I could appreciate the art but, for all the gravity the director tried to imbue, I still found it a tad cheesy. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 12/10/23 Full Review Matthew B The Seventh Seal was an important movie in establishing Ingmar Bergman's international reputation as a film director. Nowadays its reputation is a little diminished. Intellectual film critics find its imagery unsubtle, and prefer Bergman's less accessible works, such as The Silence or Persona. At the opposite end of the spectrum, The Seventh Seal is seen by some as the embodiment of all that is wrong with arthouse cinema – a depressing, po-faced movie with pretentions to importance that risks becoming a parody of itself. Hence elements from the movie have been parodied by Monty Python and Woody Allen. Even the Bill and Ted movies spoofed The Seventh Seal for goodness sake! However imitation is indeed a form of flattery, and later moviemakers would not have been able to send up The Seventh Seal if the imagery was not so impressive that it stamps itself indelibly in the mind. This is a remarkable achievement, and something that could not be accomplished by a subtler movie. Often subtlety means vagueness, and I see nothing wrong with a more explicit approach if it is done well enough. Anyone who imagines that The Seventh Seal is a typically gloomy Bergman movie has probably not watched it recently. Despite its subject matter, the movie is ultimately not a depressing one. It may discuss death, the silence of god, doubt and religious fanaticism, but it also contains many moments of warmth and humour. When I see the final scene in The Seventh Seal, I am not filled with despair. I feel uplifted by it. Made in the 1950s, The Seventh Seal reflects recent events in Europe. In the film it is the Black Death that is killing people in large numbers. In Bergman's time it was the Holocaust a few years earlier, and the threat of a nuclear war in the future. Faced with so much death in his own world, Bergman examines the many ways in which people have attempted to come to terms with their own mortality. Some people view it as a punishment from God and turn to religious self-repression (the flagellant monks) or seek scapegoats (the witch burning). Others like the actor Jonas Skat (Erik Strandmark) seek escape through lechery. Block chooses to fight it; Jons makes cynical jokes about it. It is Block's quest to find God and meaning which drives the story forward. He went on the Crusades, a religious war, and yet his suffering in the Holy Land seems to have been pointless, driven on by Raval, a cynical theologian, who is now a thief and a bully. Block faces death in despair because he cannot reconcile himself to God's silence. God's silence is the theme of many Bergman movies. Here it is encapsulated in the film's title. The Seventh Seal is the last one to be broken by the lamb in the Book of Revelation. We are told that after it was broken, there was silence in heaven for an hour. This is the problem that Block wrestles with: "Is it so cruelly inconceivable to grasp God with the senses?" he asks; "Why should He hide himself in a mist of half-spoken promises and unseen miracles?" Nothing is resolved, and the film offers us no final answers, because nobody knows what those answers might be. If the film cannot provide us with that final closure, it does at least offer up the issues with intelligence, imagination, warmth and humour. Watching The Seventh Seal leaves me with a feeling that death is not as horrifying as it seems, but that it is better to treasure the moments of life that I have been given nevertheless. I wrote a longer appreciation of The Seventh Seal on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2019/06/02/the-seventh-seal-1957/ Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/18/23 Full Review Parker E Death is always present, watching, and waiting. "We must make an idol of our fear, and call it god" In a landscape full of death and misery how do you find the will to live? Maybe find love, make jokes, find god, or destroy the source of the death. The Seventh Seal shows a knight and his squire making the journey home, and we watch various people trying to survive during the Black Death. The Seventh Seal is a bleak look into living, Religion, and death. But it's also a hope for the future that the living will continue living. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Seventh Seal

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Movie Info

Synopsis When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death (Bengt Ekerot) to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof (Nils Poppe) and his wife, Mia (Bibi Andersson), and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.
Director
Ingmar Bergman
Producer
Allan Ekelund
Screenwriter
Ingmar Bergman
Distributor
Janus Films, Criterion Collection, Embassy Pictures
Production Co
Svensk Filmindustri
Genre
Drama, Fantasy
Original Language
Swedish
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 13, 1956, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 29, 2011
Runtime
1h 36m
Sound Mix
Mono
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