The Seventh Seal
Rating: 9/10
Running Time: 96 minutes
UK Certificate: PG
On DVD
Antonius Block, Max von Sydows character in The Seventh Seal, reminds me a little bit of The Proclaimers. Its not because hes a pair of identical twins with bottle-thick specs and heavy Leith accent hes not. That would just be weird. No, its because they once released a song called I Want to be a Christian, and its a problem that Block seems ideally positioned to relate to.
Its the Middle Ages, and Block is a knight whos spent the best part of the last decade battling in the Crusades, and finds his homeland ravaged by the dreaded plague upon his return. Now, having never clapped eyes on God, he finds himself questioning his beliefs so, when Death pays him a visit (literally), our hero sees an opportunity. He challenges the cloaked one to a game of chess, hoping to buy himself just enough time to find out the meaning of life and secrets of the universe. Its wishful thinking though, as Death turns out to be quite a skilful chess player even if he does say so himself. And a fantastic lover as well, no doubt.
Ingmar Bergmans masterpiece is completely unlike anything that gets made today. Its incredibly direct in its treatment of the subject matter, not just implying the presence of death, but showing him as an actual physical character (played here by Bengt Ekerot). The film is beautifully shot, but everything were shown has its purpose, every character has a point, and every line of tremendous (and often surprisingly funny, in an extremely dark sort of way) dialogue is there for a reason. Perhaps thats how it manages to be over and done with in little over 90 minutes. After all, if a similar project was to be put to film nowadays, you cant help but feel it would be one of those over-blown two-and-a-half-hour jobs.
Its not the sort of film thatll be to everyones tastes, and upon first viewing some may even find it a little overwhelming. But its one that everybody should at least give a chance its hugely original, fantastically directed, well acted and, importantly, makes good use of humour to prevent itself from coming across as pretentious. A real landmark piece of filmmaking.
It's Got: One of the most annoying songs youll ever hear, including lines about a horse crowing in a tree and The Black One farting on the beach. Talk about lost in translation!!
It Needs: Death to stop blowing his own trumpet. Youre not THAT good at chess, matey. Or Twister either, if the ingenious bit of spoofery in Bill & Teds Bogus Journey is anything to go by.
DVD Extras A preview of Tartan Videos Bergman Collection, stills gallery, some film notes written by Bergman himself, some more film notes written by film buff bloke Ronald Bergen, and filmographies. DVD Extras Rating: 4/10
Summary
Classic Death.