The Seventh Seal

[Hans Jung]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTnX-yauFtQ The greatest chess scene of all time. Here it is if you havent seen it.

[Jeff Verman]

Re: The Seventh Seal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTnX-yauFtQ The greatest chess scene of all time. Here it is if you havent seen it.

It is a chess scene only insofar as chess is a metaphor. In the end, the knight won, even though he was checkmated. Technically, it wasn't chess he was playing.

[John Coleman]

Re: The Seventh Seal

If you look at the video at about 4.40, you will see that board is set up with white at the left.

This is such a common error I'm beginning to wonder ... are they right, and we chessplayers wrong??

EDIT: At 6.30 white is at the right, and at 6.50 white is at the left, so it looks as though the movie guys knew nothing about chess, and were just placing the board randomly.

[Jeff Verman]

Re: The Seventh Seal

The film is a film of metaphor. Metaphors abound here. The main character is a Knight - and has fought in the Crusades. Knights are in chess, not unlike his namesake chess piece.. Both move in rather unusual, surprising ways. The knight of the film tells us he yearns to do one meaningful act. He doesn't tell us what counts as meaningful. He challenges Death (the character can also be seen as a metaphor for the Plague) to a game of chess to forestall dying. He doesn't want to die, though, because he hasn't done that meaningful thing yet. And then the opportunity to save a family from Death (the Plague really) presents itself. By deliberately knocking down a chess piece, he distracts Death and the family escapes. (Escaping Death = Escaping the Plague). The Knight has now done his one meaningful act (at least in his eyes) and is immediately ready to die. He loses on the very next move.

Actual understanding of chess was irrelevant the film. Death plays black - well - because black is associated with death. They call it the "Black Plague" not the "White Plague". The Chess game is nothing more than a plot device - the tool for first stalling Death; then for distracting Death. The idea of playing chess with Death for Bergman apparently comes from this painting from the 15th century in Sweden: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ta...ying_chess.jpg

The title of the film refers to a Biblical passage dealing with the silence of God - which ties into the bleak, hopeless situation for the living, dealing with the Black Plague. I suspect these few sentences barely scratch the surface here.

[Hans Jung]

Re: The Seventh Seal

Thanks Jeff - well described - this movie has lots of "atmosphere". It reaches the viewer on many levels.

[Jack Maguire]

Re: The Seventh Seal

Movie reviewer Tim Miller chimes in on Bergman's classic.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/artic.../101243/life23