During a class discussion on the Seventh Seal, we questioned the faith of the actor Joseph. He was essentially, one who maintained faith throughout the movie. Where did his faith come from we asked; was he faithful because he had visions or did he have visions because he was faithful? I think we over-looked a key point here, the source of his visions. We the audience saw what he saw, thus we know he was not hallucinating. With this in mind, we are pointed to the readings for clarification. One of the samples I read stood out to me; "The Analysis of Mysterium." Since we can not explain the source of Joseph’s visions it is a mystery, which is indicative of that which is 'wholly other [...] beyond the sphere of the usual, the intelligible, and the familiar' (26). From this point it made me think of how Joseph and his wife were spared from death, and that maybe there was something omniscient that granted Joseph his visions so that he may avoid what he had foreseen (Death). There presents many layers and questions, the first we could peel apart and the latter we would be unable to answer. I found Joseph and his wife extremely interesting, I wouldn’t call it the best movie ever; however I did appreciate how it made me think, as well as the reading that introduced me to new perspectives.
In this class, sometimes I initially don’t understand why the film of the day is considered to have religious undertones. This is true until we talk more about it afterwards. The readings fill in the gaps and lead to deeper thoughts.
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