This article originally ran as a part of our Top 100 Movies.
In the Seventh Seal, filmic genius Ingmar Bergman delves deep into the philosophical. An ominous but playful Death plays chess with a knight recently returned from the crusades. As the knight makes his way across medieval Sweden, Death follows him at every turn, forcing him to face issues of the eternal. Bergman himself was notoriously terrified of death, and used this film in a way for his own introspection. One of the most startling explorations of man’s relation to God and death, The Seventh Seal remains a piece of startling beauty and harrowing reality.
