amy- We All Play Chess

Death follows us wherever we go. I believe this is because it is the greatest adventure and mystery we have on earth. Everyone skirts around the issue. Celebrities do not want to contemplate getting older, so they spend absurd amounts of money to try and stay young. Thoughtful singers try and reconcile the mystery with bravado. Soldiers brave wars living in death’s shadow every day. Ingmar Bergman, as director of the Seventh Seal, attempts to work out his own struggles with death through his art. His musings on death were probably the most thought-provoking of all movies we watched. I was fascinated and yet horrified at the inevitable fate of all the characters. Even from the start of the film, the idea of the protagonist dying is evident. The viewer sees his game of chess with death and sees that it can only end badly. Still the protagonist struggles on through life. The most horrifying image in the film is the girl that is burnt at the stake. She is thought to be evil and everyone is afraid of her. Through excellent acting, the girl is able to convey the ways that people believe the role society gives them. This is what saddened me. She believed she was irredeemable. It is a horrifying picture Bergman presents us with. Bergman also fascinated me with the ways that he conveyed the different approaches of humanity to death. The ending of the film was grand. Each person faces death in completely different ways. I can see many people I know in each of the characters. Ultimately, Bergman clings to the one thing that he knows for certain: love. Through the family escaping at the end of the film, Bergman shows his belief in love though it is as much of a mystery as death. For me, I appreciated this remnant of a solution in his piece of art.