The Seventh Seal

Swedish film released in the summer of 1957, directed by acclaimed director Ingmar Bergman is a much talked after film in the international cinema circles. I had this movie a year before, but haven’t watched it, decided to see what the movie was about, started in the wee-hours of 2 AM in the night. Within minutes passing I realised the critics were right about this movie.

Set in the medieval ages of 14^th century, a Knight returning to his homeland from the crusades sets to meet “Death”, yes its “Death”, portrayed in a human form. The Death tries to consume him by saying his time has come, the Knight challenges the Death to play chess with him and makes the Death to post pone his final moments on Earth.

The Death travels with the Knight on the plague stricken country side, on their way they are accompanied by various kinds of people and also involved in discussions of self-purification on the knowledge about the god and the existence of the god. Like the following lines,

Is it so cruelly inconceivable to grasp God with the senses? Why should he hide himself in a midst of halfspoken promises and unseen miracles? . . . What is going to happen to those of us who want to believe but aren’t able to? . . . Why can’t I kill God within me? Why does he live on in this painful and humiliating way even though I curse him and want to tear him out of my heart?. . . I want knowledge, not faith. . . . I want God to stretch out his hand toward me, reveal himself to me. . . . In our fear, we make an image and that image we call God

The above lines are the ones which are echoed in the minds of the agnostics in even today’s world, but the answer that Death gives to the Knight is “God is silent”.

One cannot trick death, that’s the saying which is always true, seen in the Final Destination. Death check-mates the Knight, but the Knight in the event of his falls distracts the Death in allowing the escape of his fellow travellers. Questions asked by the Knight are still relevant even now, they feared death in the form of plague and other diseases, the modern men is fear of himself.