The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal is a film directed by Ingmar Bergman, most notable for the scene in which a medieval knight (played by Max von Sydow) plays chess with the personification of Death, with his life resting on the outcome of the game.

The title is a reference to the passage from the Book of Revelation used at the start of the film, beginning with the words "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour."

Bergman stated in an interview that the film had helped him overcome his fear of death.

Synopsis Template:Spoiler

A knight (Max von Sydow) returns from a crusade and finds that his home country is ravaged by the plague. To his dismay, he discovers that Death (Bengt Ekerot) has come for him too. In order to buy time he challenges Death to a match of chess, which allows him to reach his home and be reunited with his wife.

Under the fateful journey they encounter several features of medieval society and the way it dealt with the fear of death: penitence of flagellators, the burning of a witch and the entertainment provided by travelling artists. The despairing unbelief of the knight and the cynicism of his squire (Gunnar Björnstrand) are neatly contrasted to the innocent belief of the acrobat (Nils Poppe) and his young wife (Bibi Andersson).

Eventually, it is only this couple who escape the fate of the knight and all his followers, who are led away over the hills in a medieval dance of death.

Parodies of The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal with its reflection upon death (and the meaning of life) became something of a figurehead for "serious" European films and has as such figured in several other films like the trailer for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The Seventh Seal also features as the film Woody Allen and Shelley Duvall go to see in Annie Hall. And more recently the Death character from the film played a role in the Arnold Schwarzenegger extravaganza The Last Action Hero.

The concept of playing games with Death has been used (and spoofed) many times since Bergman's movie. Woody Allen, a long-time Bergman fan, made a short film that deliberately spoofed this famous movie scene, in which a young couple challenge Death to a game of badminton.

The scene has also been spoofed in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, in which Bill and Ted beat Death at Battleship and Twister, among other games; and Death constantly changes the terms: best two out of three, best three out of five, etc.