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Movies / On DVD / The Seventh Seal
The Seventh Seal

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The Seventh Seal (1957)

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Reviews Counted:45

Fresh:42

Rotten:3

Average Rating:9/10

Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Synopsis: Antonius Block (Max Von Sydow), a knight, returns from a 10-year crusade with his squire, Jöns (Gunnar Björnstrand), to find his homeland ravaged by the plague. When the black-cloaked figure of... Antonius Block (Max Von Sydow), a knight, returns from a 10-year crusade with his squire, Jöns (Gunnar Björnstrand), to find his homeland ravaged by the plague. When the black-cloaked figure of Death (Bengt Ekerot) appears to claim them, Block, whose war experiences have left him cynical about the existence of God and the afterlife, challenges Death to a game of chess to stall for time and gain some insight into the meaning of life before passing on. The game is intermittently paused and resumed during the journey home while Block and Jöns meet several traveling companions, including a mute girl (Gunnel Lindblom) whom they save from a bandit, and a family of poor traveling players--Jof, a gentle visionary (Nils Poppe); his wife, Mia (Bibi Andersson); and their infant daughter. Block witnesses much suffering and anguish along the way (an encounter with a woman accused of witchcraft who is about to be burned at the stake is especially jarring) but also finds evidence of human kindness and love, prompting him to realize that even a single gesture of goodwill might make the long struggle of his existence worthwhile. The title of Ingmar Bergman's highly acclaimed allegorical film stems from the Book of Revelation. [More]

Starring: Gunnar Bjornstrand, Max Von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Bengt Ekerot

Starring: Gunnar Bjornstrand, Max Von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe, Gunnel Lindblom, Bertil Anderberg, Anders Ek, Ake Fridell

Director: Ingmar Bergman

Director: Ingmar Bergman
Composer: Erik Nordgren

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Jun 16, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 

Blu-ray Disc Features:

  • Special Edition
  • Full Frame - 1.33

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono - Swedish
  • Dubbed - English - Optional
  • Subtitles - English

Additional Release Material:

  • Woody Allen 1998 Bergman Tribute

Documentary:

  • 1. BERGMAN ISLAND - 2006 / Marie Nyrerod

Introduction:

  • 1. Ingmar Bergman - 2003

Additional Audio Material:

  • 1. Max von Sydow Archival Audio Interview

Audio Commentary:

  • 1. Peter Cowie, Bergman Expert
  • 2. Afterward To Commentary - Peter Cowie, Bergman Expert

Trailers:

  • 1. Theatrical Trailer

Text/Photo Galleries:

Filmographies:

  • 1. Bergman 101 - Bergman video Filmography / Peter Cowie, Narrator
 
 
 
 

Reviews for The Seventh Seal

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Bergman's film about the actual figure of Death is one of his funniest and, ultimately, most hopeful works.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
07/25/09
Christopher Long
Christopher Long
DVDTown.com

As a youth, perhaps no other film opened my eyes to the wonderful possibilities of cinema as much as The Seventh Seal.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
06/21/09
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

I never realized what an astoundingly beautiful film it was.

Full Review Source: Parallax View | comment Comment
06/18/09
Sean Axmaker
Sean Axmaker
Parallax View

Swedish cinema titan Ingmar Bergman's mopey/earthy 1957 breakthrough The Seventh Seal may have done more than any other film to popularize and demonize the notion of world cinema as the boutique of the cultural intelligentsia.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment 1 Comment
06/15/09
Eric Henderson
Eric Henderson
Slant Magazine

Perhaps no one film speaks more fully to the human condition than The Seventh Seal. [Blu-ray]

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
06/10/09
Peter Canavese
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
03/26/09
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
12/10/07
John A. Nesbit
John A. Nesbit
Old School Reviews

Its view of a seemingly godless landscape in the grip of plague is still bold and frightening.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
12/07/07
John Monaghan
John Monaghan
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

still spiritually resonates today

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
09/25/07
Jason Morgan
Jason Morgan
Filmcritic.com

It survives today only as an unusually pure example of a typical 50s art-film strategy: the attempt to make the most modern and most popular of art forms acceptable to the intelligentsia by forcing it into an arcane, antique mold.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment 4 Comments
07/30/07
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The Seventh Seal is an existentialist masterpiece packed with stunning symbolism and mordant humour. It's also far more accessible that you might think. Go see it. Or else.

Full Review Source: Little White Lies | comment Comment
07/20/07
David Jenkins
David Jenkins
Little White Lies

A cinematic masterpiece no film fan should miss.

Full Review Source: thelondonpaper | comment Comment
07/20/07
Stuart McGurk
Stuart McGurk
thelondonpaper

Bergman's superbly shot wintry images, much like those of a silent film, print themselves indelibly on the mind, while the Knight's search for a God who never answers foreshadows the pessimism of the director's later work.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
07/20/07
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
This is London

Not a friendly film, but in the consciousness of suffering, the search for meaning and the acceptance of death, all (or nearly all) of Bergman is in it.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
07/20/07
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Independent

Guaranteed to thunder on the big screen.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
07/20/07
Jonathan Crocker
Jonathan Crocker
Total Film

It is endlessly imitated and spoofed; it is also an august pinnacle of high-risk, high-art filmmaking, and one with a reputation for being far more forbidding and humourless than it actually is.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
07/20/07
Tim Robey
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph

Ingmar Bergman's dark masterpiece effortlessly sees off the revisionists and the satirists; it is a radical work of art that reaches back to scripture, to Cervantes and to Shakespeare to create a new dramatic idiom of its own.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
07/20/07
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]

Ingmar Bergman’s black and white masterpiece The Seventh Seal has matured like a great wine over 50 years.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
07/20/07
James Christopher
James Christopher
Times [UK]

Full of haunting, iconic images and a touch of hopeful humanity, The Seventh Seal is cinema at its most artful, a philosophical meditation on the meaning(lessness) of this mortal coil.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
07/20/07
Jamie Russell
Jamie Russell
BBC

Fear, peril and hoplessness soak every frame.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
07/20/07
Matthew Leyland
Matthew Leyland
BBC
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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all

Latest News for The Seventh Seal

January 21, 2009: Ingmar Goes to Aspen Opens in new window
How in the world did the former owners of an Aspen theater end up with the (still-disputed) rights to Ingmar Bergman's entire library? Read on to find out. More...

July 30, 2007: Through Bergman's Past, Brightly
With the passing of Ingmar Bergman Monday, the world of cinema lost one of its most unique and important voices. Thus, we at Rotten Tomatoes decided to pick our favorite Bergman... More...

July 30, 2007: Legendary Director Ingmar Bergman dies at 89
Ingmar Bergman, the "poet with a camera," died in his sleep at his home in Faro, Sweden Monday at the age of 89. The director of such influential films as The Seventh Seal,... More...

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