Today’s Netflix pick was Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal.
(If you’ve never heard of it, chances are you’re at least somewhat familiar anyway. It’s the film with the iconic premise of a chess match with a personification of Death.)
I’m not really sure why I’m even bothering review it, because I really don’t have a heck of a lot to say.
They say that it’s almost sacrilege to watch a dubbed movie when subtitles are available. Well, what can I say? I’m lazy, so I opted for the dubbed version of the movie. Unfortunately, I found the audio quality to be poor, so about two-thirds of the way into it, I set the audio back to the original Swedish and put the English subtitles on.
I had a really hard time getting into the beginning of the movie, but that changed almost as soon as I turned on the subtitles. I’m not sure if that’s a coincidence or not. Regardless, I enjoyed the last half-hour.
A fair amount of the movie went over my head. I think this is largely because I had a hard time telling the characters apart, and I think that was probably because the English audio was so poor. However, after I began to catch on, I enjoyed most of the movie.
After it ended, I watched the trailer, and that filled in some more of the gaps that I missed.
(I can be quite dense at times when I’m reading or watching something with literary/artistic merit. I’m not proud of that, but I’ll admit to it.)
The Seventh Seal is an existential film about the meaning of life and the existance of God. The film is not remarkable for the questions it asks, but for the humanity and emotion with which they are asked. It doesn’t tackle new ground, but it treats universal ground well. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be as iconic as it is.
3 stars out of 5, but I don’t think I fully appreciated it.
Maybe the Criterion commentary will help. I’ll try to watch that tomorrow.
Filed under: Movies
i think u really watched bill and ted’s bogus journey.
lol, Bill and Ted was excellent!
Apparently Death is better at chess than Twister.
I’ll say it loud and proud: I hated this movie when I was forced to watch it for a class in college, and I hated it when I decided to give it a second chance. As a matter of fact, I’m even willing to confess that I can’t stand most of Bergman’s work, full stop. I’ve never understood Woody Allen’s obsession with this filmmaker, and as a matter of fact I’ve also hated the films Woody has made as homages to Bergman. Wow, there’s a load off my shoulders! Thanks for giving me the space to vent, Butters…