The Seventh Seal

Okay, I'll be frank -- I'm really not connecting to this movie very easily. I think it may just be that, after the emotional high of the end of Runaway Train, Seventh Seal starts slowly and forces me to slow down to match it when I'm left wanting more of something like Runaway Train. Maybe in the future it would be better to set it up so you have something different right after Runaway Train? I don't know, I'm rambling. I'm sorry.

Anyway, though I'm not feeling much of a connection with Seventh Seal at the moment, I can't deny that it is an interesting movie. One thing I've noticed is that it seems as if the idea of black and white is a theme; Black and white film, of course (though it's not like they had anything else at the time), the black and white chess pieces, the Black Death, and the stark black-and-white credits. Also, the character of Death himself has a very pale face, in stark contrast with his black cloak.

The squire (I think his name is Jons?) is a very interesting character. I find myself connecting to him much more easily than to Block. Jons is a more lively character, while Block just seems very distant and cold.

I wish I could connect with this movie, because I know that it's fascinating and I should be getting a lot out of it. I guess it's just not my style though. I think my parents Netflixed it at some point and I walked out because I didn't like it. Oh well. Here's hoping I enjoy the rest of the movies we watch more.

Film and emotional reactions

It's a very interesting thing, isn't it? When you get down to it, a film is just a bunch of people pretending to be other people, reciting very carefully worded lines and performing pre-set actions in an effort to tell a story, which is often (though, of course, not always) completely made-up.

And yet, even knowing this, we often find ourselves profoundly affected by movies. For example, the very end of Runaway Train that left me speechless. Or a movie like Apollo 13 that has me crying (no matter how many times I see it) at the end when the radio silence finally ends and the crew is okay.
How can this be? How is it that one can be left in awed silence, in tears, or with chills running down one's back, or -- well, you get the idea -- if we know that it's just a bunch of people playing a very complex game of make-believe?

I think it all comes down to human nature. Our brains -- the most advanced nervous system in any animal, allowing us conscious thought and emotion -- don't care that it's not actually happening. Our ability to see a story and be emotionally affected by it is one of the wonders of the human mind. It doesn't matter that Manny and Ranken and the train are all figments of our imagination, that they're just actors pretending to be a convict and a prison warden on a prop that's not actually going to kill them. It's a story, and those characters are brought to life by the actors and by our imaginations, allowing us to percieve them as real people in a real situation.

Runaway Train

We just finished this movie on Friday. I have to say, I was thoroughly blown away by the very last scene of the movie. Just that image -- Manny standing on top of the train, arms outstretched, fading into the distance, toward certain death -- really gave me chills. He's about to die, but he's free. What's interesting is that the positions of Manny and Ranken are reversed; before, Manny was in his cell which was welded shut, while Ranken had the power and the freedom. In the end, it is Ranken who is handcuffed to the spot in the train while Manny exults in his freedom, standing atop the train.

A major theme throughout the film is the idea of 'Man or Beast'. In the very beginning, Ranken says that the inmates are all animals. As the movie progresses, this is referred back to -- in Manny responding to Sarah's accusation of him being an "animal" by saying "Worse -- I'm human."; in Ranken's hunt for Manny and Buck, acting like a hunter on the trail of some wild animal; and when Sarah bites Manny's hand. Biting is something of an animal instinct -- a very primitive method of self-defense or attack. Humans have mostly evolved past the use of biting as anything other than a means of eating, but this action reveals just how close all of us are to animals. Sarah's character is shown as an innocent woman, a figure we would hardly expect shouts of "Kill him! Kill him!" to come from. She is there to truly illustrate the theme of animal vs human in this movie.

Over all, I'm very happy that I saw this movie in this class. Honestly, it's a movie that I would never give a second glance otherwise. The violence and the rawness are features that I generally avoid in a film, yet this movie truly blew me away. I think it may even be among my favorite movies now. I just loved the symbolism and all the hidden meanings hiding just under the surface. And, of course, the final scene. I know, I've been going on and on about it through this whole post, but I can't get over just how breath taking I found it. You don't even need to see what happens to the train -- it honestly doesn't matter at all. All you need is the image of Manny, being truly free at last. Applauding at the end just felt like the natural response to such a stunning ending.