Introduction:

  The Seventh Seal (1957) is a B&W film adaptation of the play Trämålning (wood painting) wrote by Ingmar Bergman in 1953, who also later directed the movie. The overarching theme is essentially hinted in the title The Seventh Seal and its apocalyptic narrative within the bible, which revolves around faith and death. The movie is about the protagonist Antonius Block(knight) and Jöns(squire) discovering that the country was in the black plague and death was on their tails during their journey back home from the crusades. Yet Antonius, the man with struggling faith, finds his way of battling with death by challenging him a game of chess.

 

  This movie is kind of a metaphor of Ingmar Bergman’s religious journey and his filmography has earned him the name “the protestant atheist”. He once said, “I’ve lost my faith at 8(years old) but I didn’t realize it until the year 1968(at the age of 42)”, the transformation from doubting to abandoning faith reflects strongly on the incredible writing and visual language of this film.

 

 “ And when the lamb opened The Seventh Seal, there was in heaven a silence, which lasts about the space of half an hour, and the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

 

   The first angel sounded and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth. And the third part of the earth was burnt up. And the third part of the tree was burnt up. And all green grass was burnt up. 

 

  And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea. And the third part of the sea became blood.

 

  And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and the name of the star is called wormwood.”