During the Cold War, people around the globe feared the mass destruction and high death rates nuclear weapons might bring if launched.  This was a time period when the world was coping with horrors of World War II.  In The Seventh Seal, the reality of people dying by the thousands and others in fear of their lives came to the screen.  However, the film was not set in the 1950s, but rather in the mid-fourteenth century when the Black Death was running rampant all over Europe.  In a critique of The Seventh Seal, Danny Peary stated, “it was a revelation to see a picture that required the audience to search for the director’s meaning, just as the Knight searches for the meaning of life, in Bergman’s vivid imagery and intriguing symbols, as well as in his dialogue and events” (p. 140).  Since its release, The Seventh Seal has become one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time.  By setting the film in the fourteenth century in a plague-infested Europe, Bergman was able to address the fears of the people as well as his own doubts about the world.
     1957, the year of The Seventh Seal’s release, stood in the middle of a terrible era in the world’s history.  While millions of people around the globe continued to mourn for their fallen loved ones who perished in World War II, another streak of fear set in.  The powerful nations of the world were in the midst of a nuclear arms race.  With dozens of countries aiming missiles at each other, all the people could do was live in fear.  The time when the movie was being made also proved to be challenging for Bergman.  “Drawing from his own questions, fears, and concerns about life, death, and God, developed during his youth as a minister’s son,” Bergman was able to integrate his problems into the movie along with the fears of the people (Banka, par. 2).  He incorporates one of his most prevalent themes in the movie, which is “Does God exist?” (Brown, par.1).  Keith Brown also states, “as the Biblical-reference title suggests, the film takes place in a situation where the day of judgment seems to be at hand (nicely allowing for cold-war parallels with the late 1950s when the world was facing up to the prospect of nuclear annihilation)” (par. 2).  One of Bergman’s techniques he uses in his films is quite effective at getting the audience to see what he wants them to see.  He writes his movies as dream plays, which allows the audience to unconsciously see Bergman’s view of human condition (“The Films of…,” par. 4).  This tactic proved to be very useful during the period when the film was made because it allowed the audience to better relate to the events in the movie.
     By setting the film in the middle of the fourteenth century, Bergman was able to symbolize the events of the period to represent the emotions of the people in the 1950s, as well as his own feelings.  According to Mark Radice, “the symbolism is rampant in this film; Religion, Death, Metaphysics, juxtaposing frivolity and terror to confuse moments of jest and threat, 20th century existentialist themes – these are all fair game for Bergman” (par. 3).  The Black Death, or bubonic plague, filtered into Europe in the 1340s, striking fear into the hearts of the entire continent (Knox, p.4).  It seemed no matter where the people went, they were still susceptible to the fleas that picked up the disease from rats (p.5).  This fear of the Black Death was essentially the same thing that terrified people during the cold war.  During the cold war, people could not seek refuge anywhere.  If a nuclear missile was launched, no one was sure when or where it would hit.  Bergman symbolizes religion in the film by having Antonius Blok question God’s existence, partly because he feels like the Crusades did not fulfill their Holy purpose (Radice, par. 2).  Blok’s doubt of the Lord’s existence is similar to Bergman’s own feelings he had since he was young.
     Bergman uses the chess game between Blok and Death to symbolize Death’s grasp.  In the history of film, “there are few more memorable cinema confrontations than the chess game between Death and the Knight in The Seventh Seal” (Peary, p.142).  The game between Death and Antonius Blok boldly brings the idea of death to the screen.  In previous and latter films, the topic was included, but normally in more subtle and indirect ways.  Even though the Knight realizes he has no chance against Death, playing the game offers him a chance to ask many questions about life and religion.  At one point in the game, Blok knocks over some pieces in order to give Jof’s family a chance to escape, which eases Blok because he knows he has stopped Death from taking them.  During the chess game, Blok “concludes that ‘the quest for life is meaningless.’  But he comes to realize that life itself is not, even if it does end in meaningless death” (p.141).
      The themes of The Seventh Seal are another element of Bergman’s filmmaking that allows the audience to relate to the movie.  As Peary stated, “The Seventh Seal deals with such now familiar personal Bergman themes as Man’s loss of faith, his disillusionment about life, his inability to overcome guilt and humiliation, his self-torment, fate vs. free will, good vs. evil, and conflict in marriage” (p. 140).  All of these themes are problems man was facing during the 1950s.  Bergman used the Knight as a perfect example of Man’s loss of faith and his disillusionment about life, the flagellants as prime examples of self-torment, and Plog and his wife as representatives of conflict in marriage.  There were several other themes in the film that Bergman “borrowed from medieval paintings that had dazzled him as a child when he accompanied his father, a Lutheran minister, through Stockholm’s churches: the strolling players, the flagellants, Death playing chess, the burning of ‘witches,’ the Crusades” (p. 140).  By incorporating these themes into the movie along with his own, Bergman enabled the audience to gather more meaning and better relate to The Seventh Seal.
     Since the beginning of history, religion has been apart of nearly every culture and society.  Religion is found throughout the film in many ways and for several purposes.  Religion can be a parallel between the fourteenth century and the 1950s because “despite the awful state of the world, everyone else firmly maintains his or her belief” (Peary, p. 141).  When Jons and the painter are sitting in the church, the painter tells Jons “the Slaves of Sin are ‘flagellating themselves and others all for the glory of God’” (p.141).  Even though the Knight opens the movie in prayer and he prays when Death comes into his home, he is constantly questioning God’s existence in his life.  Everywhere the Knight looks, people are cruel to themselves and others “all for the glory of God.”  However, he never concludes that God does not exist.  Another reason for the presence of religion in the movie is for Bergman to bring out his own doubts and questions concerning his faith.  Bergman seems to use the Knight to represent himself in the movie.  Within the movie, there are several allusions to the Bible.  For instance, some people believe that Jof, Mia, and their son represent Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus.  Also, Jof believes his son will “perform a miracle ‘to make one of the balls stand absolutely still in the air’” (Peary, p.140).  While Bergman seems to make the audience question what faith they have throughout the movie, he restores that faith in a divine being when they “see that the world has survived when the Angel of Death passes over Jof’s family” (p.141).
     Bergman’s spiritual quest may be what drives the movie, as he continually questions God’s presence in the world.  While in the church confessing to Death, Antonius Blok says, “‘my indifference has shut me out.  I live in a world of ghosts, a prisoner of dreams.  I want God to put out his hand, show his face, and speak to me.  I cry out to him in the dark but no one is there’” (Ebert, par.1).  It is because Bergman openly confronts these issues that some people believe The Seventh Seal is falling in popularity.  Even though the film has been recognized as a classic, “it is now a little embarrassing for some viewers, with it stark imagery and uncompromising subject, which is no less than the absence of God” (par.2).  Many of these viewers do not realize that Bergman used the movie as a way to confront his own doubts.  In his book, Images: My Life in Film, Bergman stated, “Since at this time I was still very much in a quandary over religious faith, I placed my two opposing beliefs side by side, allowing each to state its own case in its own way” (Kael, Commentary).
     The Seventh Seal can be seen as “an allegory of our time [1950s] in the form of medieval spectacle” (Peary, p. 140).  Being able to set a film in the fourteenth century and make the audience feel like they are living in the same period is truly incredible.  Igmar Bergman created The Seventh Seal to make the people see their fear and try to get some meaning from the movie.  However, film critics are still unable to agree on what many aspects of the movie meant or represented, “and it was compelling that we didn’t fully grasp Bergman’s meaning at the film’s conclusion or even after several viewings—after all, the Knight doesn’t have his questions answered either” (p.140).
 
 

Works Cited

Banka, Bob. “The Seventh Seal.”  Online.  Internet.  10 Apr. 2000.   Available: http://www.ohms.com/bpst141.shtml

Brown, Keith.   “The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Insseglet).”  EUFS Programme, May 13, 1999 Online.  Internet.  13 Apr. 2000
    Available: http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/filmsoc/films/the_seventh_seal.html

Ebert, Roger.  “The Seventh Seal.”  Chicago Sun-Times.  Online.  Internet. 18 Apr. 2000.
    Available: http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/greatmovies/seventh_seal.html

“The Films of Ingmar Bergman.”  MasonWest.  Texas: Mason West, 2000.  Online.  Internet.  12 Apr. 2000. Available:
    http://mason-west.com/Bergman/index.shtml

Kael, Pauline.  “The Seventh Seal.”  5001 Nights at the Movies. Online.  Internet.  12 Apr. 2000.  Available:
    http://www.geocities.com/~ingmarbergman/films/seventh_seal/index.htm

Knox, Ellis L., Dr.  “The Black Death.”  Boise State University: 1995.  Online. Internet.  14 Apr. 2000.  Available:
    http://history.idbsu.edu/westciv/plague/index.html

Peary, Danny.  Cult Movies 2.  New York: Dell, 1983.

Radice, Mark.  “The Seventh Seal (Det Sjunde Insseglet).”  EUFS Programme, May 13, 1999 Online.  Internet.  13 Apr. 2000
    Available: http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/filmsoc/films/the_seventh_seal.html