I recently watched Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" by chance. I have never liked to watch such obscure "auteur" movies before, and I need to reserve some knowledge of the Bible before watching the movie, otherwise it is very likely that I will not understand it. The protagonist of "The Seventh Seal", Brock, is a knight who has just returned from the battlefield when he encounters the god of death on his way home, declaring that his life is over. Bullock is not afraid of death, but he is afraid that his life will be lost in such a meaningless way, so he bet with the god of death that the god of death can only take his life if he wins the game of chess. In the struggle against the god of death, Bullock passed through the plague-spreading village, met a couple who were performing arts along the way, and finally returned to his home.
Although there are all kinds of movie reviews, when I watched this movie myself, I thought it was okay, not so obscure, although the shape of the god of death in it does make people terrified. Death, no matter when and where, is a heavy topic, and The Seventh Seal talks about death. From the beginning of the film, the god of death quietly descended on the knight Bullock's side, announcing that his time has come. In the film, only those who have reached the deadline will see the god of death, so the god of death may be just "visions" belonging to individual characters. However, instead of obeying the god of death, Bullock took advantage of the custom of the god of death's love of playing chess, and deceived the opportunity to prolong his life - until the god of death beat him, his life was still in his own hands. The life that Brock won by playing chess is not very long, after all, his chess skills are far from that of Reaper (the first game, Brock won by cheating), which makes me wonder why he wants to live these days.
In my opinion, Bullock is not afraid of death, and there may be more than one reason why he wants to prolong his life. When in church, he entered the small room alone to pray. He said that he wanted to pray for spiritual plumpness. He had been away from society for too long, and his heart was empty. I think, Brock just came back from the battlefield and desperately wants to return to society, and wants to do something that can prove that his life is more than a killing machine. While in the forest, I saw him deliberately give up the game and lose to Reaper, thus giving the Jofs (acrobats) a chance to escape from Reaper. Before that, he felt the kindness of the world from the Jof couple. The Jofs treat Bullock and his servants with milk and wild strawberries, and they spend a wonderful afternoon together, which is also the most relaxing scene in the whole film: Bullock forgets the battle with death and joins the crowd Drinking milk from a big bowl and eating wild strawberries that Mia accidentally discovered; in laughter, Jof played the piano and sang a song. It was this scene that reminded me of the second reason why Brock didn't want to die - the kindness of the world.
In the film, we will see a village shrouded in plague with Brock's pace, and another theme of the film, religion, appears here. In this village, there is also a religion, and they can be said to be the masters here. They blamed a thin and beautiful girl for the spread of the plague in the village. They say the devil is inside her. They tied her to a stick and tortured her with a pincer (finger pinching); at midnight they took her into the forest and burned her alive. These actions of blaming others on others made Bullock feel desperate. The God he believed in did not give him an answer in this. He only saw various evil deeds. He began to doubt the existence of God, and eagerly wanted God to give him a response. And in the "Milk and Wild Strawberries" scene, he seems to have found proof of the existence of God, who put good qualities into the Jof family. He was comforted in his heart, so he was no longer heavy in the game with Death, but smiled.
At the end of the film, Bullock returns to his home with his companions. He finally reunites with his wife, whom he has been thinking about day and night. At this time, his lifespan was really exhausted. Brock and the other six were sitting around the dining table with their heads lowered, wondering what they were thinking. At this moment, the god of death appeared in front of everyone. This time, all six saw the god of death.
Ingmar is a "style" director (auteur) who has his own unique worldview and puts it into his own films. "The Seventh Seal" shows his critique of traditional religions, which see innocent girls as the source of their sins and hold meaningless marches. But in this, Ingmar still believes that God exists in the world, and he still makes Brock feel the goodwill of the world.
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