![]() ![]() Bergman's message, however, is more about the silence of God on earth than in heaven. The film opens and closes with the passage from Revelation from which it takes its title: `When he broke open the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour' (Rev 8:1). In The Seventh Seal, however, Death is not frightening or sinister, just an old man performing his job with a wry detachment. ![]() As in the Greek legend of Kronos and medieval folklore, Bergman depicts Death as the Grim Reaper, a man clothed from head to foot in a black habit and hood. It is the time of the Black Plague and Death has his hands full. ![]() Penitents flog themselves, seminarians rob the dead, people go mad from fear, and witches are burned at the stake. It is the 14th century and suffering and pain abound. While the game goes on, he gets a reprieve. In the magnificent 1957 classic The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman, Antonius Block (Max Von Sydow), a knight returning home from the Crusades with his squire Jöns (Gunnar Bjönstrand) meets Death (Benkt Ekerot) on a lonely beach and challenges him to a game of chess. ![]()
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