Films continue to be a truly unique medium to discover and explore the nuances of life, death and everything in between through the depictions in moving pictures. However, while films can be considered as a form of contemporary art (Khatchadourian, 1975) sometimes there is a cause for concern in regards to philosophically analysing all films. This is not an unfamiliar dilemma as Plato would also hypothetically banish poets from his ideal city, upon which the divide between philosophy and the arts would persist onwards.

This would bring many to question whether the arts have the capacity to reveal fundamental truths about death, life and existence, or whether the arts hide the truth from us, by sugar-coating these complex philosophical notions to make it more digestible without going too in-depth into it.

The caveat occurs in the goals of filmmaking and philosophy. Whilst Philosophy seeks for the epistemological truths, films are usually made with the purpose of engaging with their audiences (Wartenberg, 2006). Which would mean that not all films would be in the highest calibre of analysis, as there are many with little to no intention to address ground-breaking philosophical revelations. However, this does not negate or take away from the films that do strive and succeed in providing a medium for deep philosophical analysis. Bergman’s The Seventh Seal is definitely one of such examples.

Arguably the better approach with applying philosophy into film would ideally not involve using films as a final gospel on deducing the epistemological truths in life, but rather to use it as an accompanying tool to further understand philosophical notions and themes rather than take it as face value. Just like other mediums of literature and arts, films illustrate and illuminate on broadening the scope for various philosophical interpretations of itself, regardless of its agenda (Wartenberg, 2006).

In fact, in the 1978 Interview between Melvyn Bragg and Ingmar Bergman, Bergman illustrates that if you are to create a universe of your fantasy in your filmmaking, then that particular universe is not reality, for reality “always makes sabotages to your fantasy”. Hence you would have to take the details and elements from reality (perhaps in the form of philosophical notions of existential dread) and apply them into your universe of film-making but also noting that those details “must be absolutely perfect”  (Bragg, 1978). This can therefore highlight how Art and Philosophy (in this case Film and Philosophy) can be utilised in conjunction with one another, so long as the philosophical elements are well thought out.

This can also tell us more about the depictions of life and death, or help us revisit philosophical notions of life and death, (particularly for this film) as it utilises the elements of reality. Bergman does this by showing the main character, Antonius Block’s, constant search for the meaning and purpose of life, which may be a familiar dilemma that many face in reality, including Bergman himself. Such a dilemma is also addressed in other films, such as Woody Allen’s film Hannah and Her Sisters. 

Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 film ‘The Seventh Seal’ is an existential masterpiece of a film. The film explores heavy themes surrounding the human condition, mortality, the nature of faith, and the inevitability of death. Set in the Medieval era Sweden, the film follows the journey of a knight named Antonius Block (played by Max von Sydow), who returns home from the Crusades to find his homeland ravaged by the plague. Struggling to come to terms with his mortality, Antonius is on a journey to find meaning in his life, where he searches for answers to the large-looming questions of “what happens to me when I die,” and “does God exist”. Along his journey to seek for such answers, Antonious encounters the character of Death, depicted in the movie as being literally personified. He challenges Death to a game of chess in an attempt to delay the demise of him and his friends.

With the character of Death following wherever Antonius goes, it highlights the ultimate metaphor for mortality where the inevitability of one’s demise is lingering right around the corner; in this case, quite literally. It is very intriguing to portray the character of Death as a personified being. The personification of Death almost humanises one of the biggest mysteries questioned by film-makers and philosophers alike; and does so by putting a face and personality into an abstract concept.  A 1975 Interview between Melvyn Bragg and Ingmar Bergman prompts this response from Bergman when asked about his intention on personifying death:

 “Death is present the whole time in this picture and everybody in this picture reacts differently to death, and after that picture, of course I still think very much about death, but after the picture I don’t obsess about it anymore.” -Bergman (Bragg, 1978)

This illustrates how even Bergman himself would come to learn about life from his own created depiction of death in his films.

In one of the most quintessential scenes in the film, Antonius is pleading to death that he “wants knowledge, not faith, not assumptions, but knowledge”. In this scene alongside Death, Antonius would carry on to say that he wants “God to stretch out his hand, uncover His face and speak” to him. To which Death responds “But God remains silent”, following with Antonius uttering that he calls out to God “in the darkness, but it’s as if no one is there”. Death responds that perhaps there isn’t anyone. Then Antonius interjects “Then life is a preposterous horror. No man can live faced with death, knowing everything is nothingness.” (The Seventh Seal,1957). There is a lot that can be said about this scene in the film.

From the juxtaposition of lightness and darkness in the lighting of the scene to how the composition of both characters in the scene shows Antonius being restricted and behind bars, with all his uncertainties, where Death is very much free and outside the prison cell, which can also indicate that Death has a wider scope of the understanding of the afterlife (or lack thereof) as Death is beyond the bars of Antonius’ realm.

The Seventh Seal portrays a heavy depiction of Christianity but also highlights the struggle of faith in a time and place of suffering. The depiction of an afterlife is not shown directly on screen, but rather through Antonius’ belief that God exists. However, the film significantly grapples with Antonius’ lingering sense of losing faith, as he keeps on pleading to his God with no true answers. This would bring up the queries on existential dread. On whether the horrors of Antonius being at War was meaningful and purposeful rather than the senseless cruelty and wrath of God. For then according to Antonius if the existence of a God and a potential afterlife is not true, then to him that would mean that “life is a preposterous horror” and that “No man can live faced with death, knowing that everything is nothingness”. A similar sentiment to this is addressed in Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters, where Allen’s character Mickey, upon having an existential crisis would also insist that “If I (Mickey) can’t believe in God then I don’t think that life is worth living”. (Hannah and Her Sisters, 1986).

However, there is much to critique in this notion. To Epicureans, Death is the annihilation of atomic connections that would make us ourselves. As addressed in Section 2 of this essay, Epicurus concludes that death is not to be feared as the afterlife is non-existent according to his beliefs; death does not cause harm to the postmortem person, as they cease to exist and would therefore have no sensation (Epicurus and Bailey, 1926). Hence fearing death would therefore be pointless. Alternatively, even with the idea of an afterlife in mind, according to Socrates, the soul will be more free and enriched as it is no longer hindered by the body (West and Plato, 1979) (Van Harten, 2011).

It is important to note that the fear of Death for Antonius is not contingent on the sensation of something bad happening (like Epicurus would suggest). The fear of death within Antonius is more-so prominent because it is the fear of his life being pointless and his purpose of going through suffering is null and void should a God or an afterlife not exist. Antonius is delaying his demise by playing a logically inclined game of chess as he ponders about the futility of his existence. He therefore is holding out for hope that everything does not in the end equate to nothingness. To clarify, Antonius does not desperately want to cling onto blind faith with no answers (in this scene at least) but rather he is desperately pining for an answer from God after witnessing suffering and demise all around him. Even after witnessing the horrors of war and the Black Plague, God does not reveal himself. For someone to have gone through so much, and then for God to not respond, can leave a person pondering obsessively on the uncertainty of whether all that they have done truly matters.

The scenes in the movie where Antonius is with the acrobat family and Jof, we can see more of a glimmer of hope and the appreciation for life from Antonius, as he relishes and appreciates the company and the “wild strawberries and milk”. Therefore we should focus and live on the present, as pondering on the unreachable explanation of what happens when we die, or constant searching for the meaning of life would lead to not living life fulfillingly (Hadot, 1995). Only then one can reach a state of true Ataraxia, by living each day to the fullest and not delaying the future for the sake of giving into existential dread.

There occurs to be an epistemological gap of the understanding of the physicality and tangibility of how death is perceived and of what it truly means to be dead, other than taking on the biological definition at face value. For when a being is dead, there is no way of confirmation on what death truly is from the being itself. As Epicurus so eloquently purports in his Letter to Moeneceus: “when we are, death is not, when death is present, then we are not” (Epicurus and Bailey, 1926). Therefore, the only confirmation of death that is available to us is empirical in nature through the obvious (biological) observation of the cessation of all vital functions.

According to Plato in Phaedo, the human soul is essentially immortal, where it exists prior to birth and supersedes physical death of the body. As the soul has the potential to supersede the death of the body, the soul would be able to relocate from this realm to the next. Socrates also addresses this optimistic notion of death near the end of Plato’s Apology (4oC5-41C7):

“For to be dead is one of two things: either it is like being nothing and the dead person does not have any perception of anything, or, as they say, it is some kind of change, namely relocation, of the soul from here to another place. And if it is indeed a complete absence of perception, like the sleep of someone who does not even dream at all, death would be a remarkable gain…” (West and Plato, 1979) (Van Harten, 2011)

Showing that out of the two outcomes, with one resulting in cessation and the other resulting in an afterlife, both outcomes signify that death is not to be feared. This sentiment is also prevalent in the Epicurean perspective of Death. Epicurus develops on his views on intrinsic hedonism and develops his argument on why death should not be something to fear (Epicurus and Bailey, 1926).

Perhaps the fear of death comes from a different point entirely. We can argue that death is bad because it leaves this sense of uneasiness through its lingering sense of the unknown. This fear in particular is heavily featured in The Seventh Seal. Bergman expertly utilises our fears of the unknown and mystery of death in his depiction of Death in the film and also through the journey of his main character Antonius Block. We can also argue that death is bad because of the fear that comes along with the anticipation of it’s inevitability. That one day we will cease to exist and no longer experience the things that we do while we are alive. This would therefore imply that death is fearful to many because of it depriving us from experiencing life (Nagel, 1970) (Warren, 2004).

The depiction of Death and Life in Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, provides a lot of insight into not only the fears of the inevitable demise of ourselves, but also on how the film replicates the human quest for purpose and meaning in life. Bergman does this very successfully as he incorporates these philosophical notions of reality into his “fantasies” (film). It cannot tell us about what exactly happens after death, but it accurately portrays our frustration of the unknown through its characters. It can also tell us that whilst death is inevitable and lurking around the corner, life still persists and the little things in life that brings us joy truly does matter.