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This is my first full length review. Please tell me what you think of it. Please point out grammatical errors if you find them as well.
The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman
I’m sorry but this movie really underwhelmed me. I was expecting myself to be mind-blown but it didn’t do it at all.
The movie, as most people know, is about a knight named Antonius Block who plays chess with Death while delaying the game to wonder around Sweden, asking questions and talking to people.
One problem I had was that even though Block is the protagonist of the movie, he isn’t featured that much. The movie, to me, seemed more about his squire Jons as he had more dialogue and was featured in more scenes. This is a problem as the movie is about Block avoiding Death. There’s a scene about three fourths in regarding Block’s party talking with Skat, a man who ran off with someone’s daughter. They have a talk with ends with Skat pretending to kill himself only to be killed by Death after climbing a tree soon afterwards. This scene is about five minutes long yet, if I remember correctly, Block isn’t in it. We aren’t given a reason why he isn’t there so the scene is pointless. Even more so Death cutting down the tree afterwards. The only part that was entertaining in that one scene was when the Squire told the others about the existence of apes.
The main problem I had with the film were the questions. Over the coarse of Block’s wonderings avoiding the chess game, he asks several questions regarding death, god and life. The movie didn’t really give a groundbreaking view on this, Death said he knew nothing so Bergman didn’t really give that much philosophy in my opinion. I had read somewhere along the lines that this movie is great because it shows the existence of Death but not God, which is how life is like. That is partly right as I have had doubts regarding my faith in the past (and still today) but I don’t find it that original.
Also going back to the existence of Death but not God, how does that work? If there is no God or another high power, then there shouldn’t be magic stuff like Death. You can argue Death is an allusion of Block but Jof can see him so Death can’t be an allusion of Block. Hell they all see him at the very end, looking confused and neutral (which is cliched.) This may be nit picking but I was thinking of this even before I watched the movie.
I didn’t like this movie as you could tell. I really wanted to though. I wanted this movie to give me a new lookout on life like what Anton Chekhov’s The Bet did for me.
http://www.eldritchpress.org/ac/jr/154.htm
But it didn’t. Another good review of this movie that I’ll recommend reading is Blite2000’s on IMDB.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050976/...score&custom=1
This is my first Bergman and I’m worried. If this considered his best film, then will I hate his others? I’ll give him another chance with Virgin Spring and Winter Light but if I don’t like those, then Swedish cinema isn’t my cup of tea.
Four Out of Ten. A Bad Movie.
The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman
I’m sorry but this movie really underwhelmed me. I was expecting myself to be mind-blown but it didn’t do it at all.
The movie, as most people know, is about a knight named Antonius Block who plays chess with Death while delaying the game to wonder around Sweden, asking questions and talking to people.
One problem I had was that even though Block is the protagonist of the movie, he isn’t featured that much. The movie, to me, seemed more about his squire Jons as he had more dialogue and was featured in more scenes. This is a problem as the movie is about Block avoiding Death. There’s a scene about three fourths in regarding Block’s party talking with Skat, a man who ran off with someone’s daughter. They have a talk with ends with Skat pretending to kill himself only to be killed by Death after climbing a tree soon afterwards. This scene is about five minutes long yet, if I remember correctly, Block isn’t in it. We aren’t given a reason why he isn’t there so the scene is pointless. Even more so Death cutting down the tree afterwards. The only part that was entertaining in that one scene was when the Squire told the others about the existence of apes.
The main problem I had with the film were the questions. Over the coarse of Block’s wonderings avoiding the chess game, he asks several questions regarding death, god and life. The movie didn’t really give a groundbreaking view on this, Death said he knew nothing so Bergman didn’t really give that much philosophy in my opinion. I had read somewhere along the lines that this movie is great because it shows the existence of Death but not God, which is how life is like. That is partly right as I have had doubts regarding my faith in the past (and still today) but I don’t find it that original.
Also going back to the existence of Death but not God, how does that work? If there is no God or another high power, then there shouldn’t be magic stuff like Death. You can argue Death is an allusion of Block but Jof can see him so Death can’t be an allusion of Block. Hell they all see him at the very end, looking confused and neutral (which is cliched.) This may be nit picking but I was thinking of this even before I watched the movie.
I didn’t like this movie as you could tell. I really wanted to though. I wanted this movie to give me a new lookout on life like what Anton Chekhov’s The Bet did for me.
http://www.eldritchpress.org/ac/jr/154.htm
But it didn’t. Another good review of this movie that I’ll recommend reading is Blite2000’s on IMDB.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050976/...score&custom=1
This is my first Bergman and I’m worried. If this considered his best film, then will I hate his others? I’ll give him another chance with Virgin Spring and Winter Light but if I don’t like those, then Swedish cinema isn’t my cup of tea.
Four Out of Ten. A Bad Movie.