User blog comment:BrianBerta/Top 20 Favorite Movies of All Time/@comment-26030957-20160907180717/@comment-24466828-20160907203725

Honestly, I was a bit disappointed by "The Seventh Seal".

Since the film's plot was heavily based on the chess game, I assumed that it was going to be a big part of the film. As I got more into the film, however, I realized that the chess game wasn't going to be in the film that much, and I was right. This may not be necessarily a bad thing for some people, but I was slowly starting to forget about the chess game as the film continued on, and by the time it was introduced for a 2nd time near the 60 minutes mark, I felt like it was being underutilized. It was a little disappointing, because Bergman could have done a lot with it if it was in the movie more. I understand that a lot of the movie should be focused on him trying to do a meaningful deed and the experiences he goes through during the time period. However, Bergman could've easily added roughly 15-20 minutes of the chess game throughout the film.

The expedition Antonius went through in the film let us know about his questions on life, death, and God. However, I wish that the film informed us a bit more about himself as an individual and how he approaches life. That's not to say that I didn't care at all about him. In fact, his questions opened the film up to some great dialogue. However, that quest did not show us how he approached life on a daily basis. The only scenes which showed a bit of it were the way too brief scenes of him sharing strawberries and milk with Jof, Mia, and her baby. There should've been more scenes like that. Jöns, Antonius's squire, was a character who was more fully realized. I knew a lot more about him as an individual. As a result, I cared about his fate a lot more.