Even if I understand it, I can't write a long-winded movie review. I'm not a critic after all. What I focus on is how a movie tells a story. Literary, philosophical things, I regret to say that I still can't make them express in words. Or maybe I have a vague feeling of those certain doctrines, certain feelings, and certain hidden symbols, but there is no way to implement them into the square characters.
I only record my understanding of this film - and the life outlook, world outlook, and knowledge of the Bible to understand this film - as of April 9, 2008.
Death is coming to the mortal world to take people's lives.
In the last shot, Death took almost all the characters that appeared. Only the Jof family survived.
Antonius Block, a soldier of the Crusades, he is dying, most likely because he killed people in the war of the crusades. The controversy of the Eastern Expedition War has not yet been settled. If God really existed, he might laugh at this cruel game of mankind. And murder is a crime, and Antonius Block has to die.
Jöns, a somewhat arrogant guard, has drawn his sword to help many times, so why did he have to die? The reason I can find from the film is that he actually cursed his wife and hoped that she would die, and justifiably let the person in front of him stay by his side. This figure of a philosopher who seems to know all human feelings, but also cannot escape the scythe of death.
The blacksmith was the victim of adultery, and threatened to kill both the adulterer and the adulterer. Is it not a sin to have a sin in the heart?
Jof's partner actor and blacksmith's wife are the most blatant crimes. Immortality is impossible.
The most innocent is the girl that Jöns has a crush on. Not only is there only one line in the whole film, but it also dies in an unclear manner. For what sin did she die?
And in the end, why should the wife of Antonius Block die?
To be sure, Bergman's film questions the existence of God. Antonius held his head at the last moment and prayed to God to appear. After that real battle of flesh and blood, where is the divine light of God? He can't see the Virgin Mary and her child in Jof's eyes, and Satan in the eyes of the "witch" before being burned (I must say, the way that evil priest was dressed and the angle of that moment and Death was really good Like. So did Antonius see Death?). The atheist Jöns warns him that you, and the witch who is dying, have no god or death in their eyes, only nothingness. You have been or are in nothingness!
If this is the case, will Christians be unacceptable when they hear it?
As far as I know, there is no such thing as death in the biblical world. Christ also mentioned that if you believe in God, you also believe in the devil. What about the god of death? Or, death is something other than Christ, and in the Seventh Seal, God never existed! ?
Last but not least, the camera movement in this film is pleasing to the eye. 4:3+ black and white picture, it is really impossible to expect anything visually. But the part where Antonius and the Jof family cozily enjoyed on the lawn was beautiful. This is exactly what Antonius doubts.
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This talented Swedish actor Max von Sydow, who plays Antonius, recently The work I saw was actually the lovely old man, the father of the protagonist in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"! Genius Genius! How did you learn French and English!
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