Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19162 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-09-24
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, PAL
• Original language: Latin, Swedish
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Ingmar Bergman's 1956 film, The Seventh Seal has been parodied by everyone from Woody Allen to Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, but it remains one of the strangest and richest classics of world cinema. Max Von Sydow plays a knight returning from the Crusades to encounter an apocalyptic scenario inspired by the Book of Genesis. He plays chess with Death (Bengt Ekerot), sees a manacled witch, watches a band of flagellants go by--all of it foretelling an inevitable end to life. Unabashedly allegorical and lyrical and existing in a world unto itself, the film is enormously mesmerising no matter what one thinks of the weighty meanings Bergman has attached to it all.--Tom Keogh

Amazon.co.uk Review
Ingmar Bergman's best-known film and deservedly so, 1957's The Seventh Seal is an allegorical study of death, God and the meaning, if any, of human existence. It is a film that every human being should see, addressing as it does our deepest hopes, anxieties, curiosities and fears. Yet it's also a magical and captivating experience, close to the state of a lucid dream. Max Von Sydow plays Antonius Block, the knight who has returned, gaunt, weathered and disillusioned, from the crusades, to find his home country in the grip of the plague. He is met by Death, in the pallid, hooded form of Bengt Ekerot, whom he challenges to a game of chess. The longer he can stave off defeat, the longer he can prolong the existence of himself and his own entourage, whom Block acquires in the form of his cynical squire a young family and a band of travelling players.

Block's oft-expressed doubts and fears about his mortality and what lies beyond (hence the biblical Seventh Seal, which reveals this final secret to mankind) were especially relevant in the late 1950s, when the threat of the Bomb hung over mankind as did the threat of the plague many centuries before. The concluding Dance of Death image is, like the movie as a whole, harrowing, yet strangely enchanting.

On the DVD: Presented in the original academy ratio, this is an excellent restoration, emphasising the cinematic use of light to contrast the carefree young players with the austere shades used to convey Block's anxiety-ridden ruminations. Notes from Bergman's memoirs discuss how the "Dance of Death" image came from wood carvings in a country church he frequented as a child, as well as the influence of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana on the film. Critic Ronald Bergan's additional notes largely echo Bergman's own. --David Stubbs

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Star and Director Filmographies
Scene Selection
Film Notes
The Bergman Collection Trailer
Original Academy Aspect Ratio
Swedish Language with English Subtitles

Customer Reviews

Bleak, dark but with a ray of hope
BEWARE SPOILERS and needless interpretations.

It really is impossible to consider an Ingmar Bergman movie without immediately running to an interpretation. At least for me that is the case. In particular The Seventh Seal seems to demand that we ask what was Bergman's intention. Was it to show that Christianity and superstition are brothers in arms? Was it to suggest a kind of fatalism that allows some to live and others to die without rhyme or reason?

The story, set in the 14th century during the time of plague, concerns a knight, Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) and his squire Jons (Gunnar Bjornstrand) lately returned to Sweden from the Crusades. Bergman combines realism with supernatural elements, such as the appearance of Death (Bengt Ekerot) with whom Antonius Block plays a game of chess, and the visions that the traveling troubadour, Jof (Nils Poppe) sees that nobody else can see including his wife Mia (Bibi Andersson). Block is haunted by death and has been assured that death is imminent, but hopes to put it off by beating Death at chess.

Meanwhile the inhabitants are also in fear of death and seek to blame someone. They seize a young girl (Maud Hansson) and brand her a witch for consorting with the Evil One. They hold her in a pillory prior to burning her at the stake. Notice that instead of denying that she has been with the devil, she tells us that she reaches out and touches him everywhere. The only bright spot in the movie is the family of Jof, Mia and their infant son.

Antonius Block goes to confession only to discover that the priest behind the window is none other than his adversary Death, to whom he inadvertently reveals his strategy in their game of chess. Block is searching for the meaning of life. He is trying to find God, whom he complains is always hiding. Instead he finds Death. Can they be one and the same? Jons is able and cynical and sees through humanity's many delusions. Jof plays at life and sings. Mia is filled with love for life. Guess who lives and who dies.

But of course the plague was the great leveler. Persons of stations high and low were brought within its compass, but Bergman gets to pick and choose who shall live and who shall die.

As usual with Bergman we have the most incredible study of human faces. I particularly liked the close ups of the women. The face of Gunnel Lindblom, who plays the young woman ("Girl" in the credits) that Jons saves from being raped, is particularly striking and intense. I recall her from The Virgin Spring (1960) in which she played Ingeri, the Odin-worshipping servant. The face of Bibi Andersson is a delight with her quick, pretty eyes and her engaging smile.

But Bergman also concentrates on the faces of the bit players, in the mead hall and at the burning and as they watch the traveling players at their song and dance. With Bergman people are intensely real, up close and always personal. And he knows what they think and how they act. He shows us here, as he does in all his films, human hypocrisy and stupidity, human love and frailty. The landscape is bleak, the shadows are dark and life is harsh. Humans take their quick pleasures and then they die. That is the message I think that Bergman is sending to us.

No student of film should miss this, one of the most talked about films ever made, and perhaps Bergman's first great work of art. He died only recently in 2007, not long after being voted (In Time Magazine, I think) as the greatest living director.

Unsettling, humbling, and thought provoking
This unsettling, humbling, and thought-provoking film has made an enormous impression on me.

Bergman reminds us that even our greatest achievements in life will not cheat Death, that superstition can create unspeakable evils, and that the enormous power wielded by the Church was sometimes tragically bad. The film raises important questions regarding God and his existence, as well as the meaning life and the emptiness that possibly awaits us after death.

The knight (Max von Sydow) and his squire (Gunnar Björnstrand) offer us two possible approaches to life: idealism versus hedonism. Which approach we should adopt in our own lives is left to us to decide.

AN AWE INSPIRING UNDISPUTED MASTERPIECE
The mysteries of religion and death have long been a popular focus among artists of all media, including film. And while many films question these mysteries, they seldom provide any real insight into the world of the unknown. In Ingmar Bergman's THE SEVENTH SEAL, these mysteries are not only questioned; they are dissected, splayed, and scrutinized.

THE SEVENTH SEAL could very well serve as sort of a manifesto for existentialism. Its deep acuity and haunting imagery is powerful enough to jar even passive viewers out of their complacency and force them to examine their own reality. The delicately crafted story centers around a 14th century knight named Antonius Block and his ongoing game of chess with a shadowy, hooded figure: Death. Bergman uses this allegory not just to personify death, but to illustrate the lengths man will go to in order to avoid it. In the end, however, Death is a much better player than any of us, and though he may humor some of his opponents by letting them think that they have the advantage, the end result is inevitable: Death always wins. No matter how skillfully we plan our moves or how determined we are to win, we can never beat Death.

In Antonius's search for answers, he encounters a variety of very unique characters, each with their own outlook on life, death, faith, fear and love. Their commentary on such matters is often dryly funny and always brilliant, continuously and effectively challenging our perceptions of the world around us. For me, the dialogue was definitely the high point of the film, as it was extremely thought-provoking and carefully constructed throughout. Almost every line spoken is, in one way or another, daunting and unforgettable. Jöns's description of love as "the blackest of all plagues" is a quote that will forever be engraved in my mind.

THE SEVENTH SEAL truly is a remarkable accomplishment in the world of cinema. It is a deep, mesmerizing, and darkly beautiful work of art. More importantly, THE SEVENTH SEAL is one of those rare movies that doesn't just entertain, but also has the power to change the way one thinks.