Death stalks you at every turn...with humor!

Review of The Seventh Seal (1957) by pstergos: 👍 8.0/10

I expected a whole lot of things from The Seventh Seal. I thought it would be up its own ass, have striking imagery and philosophical discussions about death and lots of chess. What I did not expect was this to be funny. I did not expect it to have anything regarding levity in any regard. And what seemed to be something I was gonna respect more than I would like or even tolerate became something that just became a good movie on its own terms.

Not to say that it is a light-hearted movie; it is far from that. At its core, it is a meditation on death and what comes after. Is there something after? Is there nothing? Could this be all for nothing? And if it is all for nothing, then what can we do to make life meaningful? This is what The Seventh Seal asks of the viewers, deep down inside. However, this light-hearted touch keeps things from being too depressive.

It just has that touch where things my seem bad, and at times, are bad but it shows that Death is nothing to be afraid of. Death, the actual character, is a charming figure. He's willing to play chess, have nice conversations and even jokes with a person he's about to take that his contract has been terminated on account of death, HIS! Death is the whole anchor of the movie and like he even said, "I have walked at your side for a long time now."

Despite it being the poster child of Le Film Artistque, it really is much more accessible than you think. Don't let its reputation scare you off, not only is this very good cinema but it is much more life-affirming than you would gather from what has been said and referenced.