Come and See is a 1985 Soviet anti-war film set in the region of Bylorussia in 1943, a boy is recruited in a Soviet army unit and witnesses the first-hand effects of war and the cruelty of it. It manages to do this beautifully, frighteningly almost by destroying everything that comes in it’s path in sometimes sudden shocks as the bombs fall on our characters or in an effective extended sequence which fires the systematic extermination of a Bylorussian village and it’s inhabitants.
War kills everything, the people just following orders commit crimes against other people that shouldn’t ever have happened but it is all too real, it has happened too many times and it is still happening. The lose of innocence caused by the fraction of a young boy’s reality as he discovers for the first time just how horrifying and terrible war can be and how easily one person can bring about the death of many.
The movie is set in a forested backdrop, it’s gorgeous and doesn’t flinch from destroying it’s own beautyto showcase the brutal destroying nature of man. Everything that has ever been built, was real and has been the norm for our main character is shattered and he is helpless as people die around him. It makes you feel as helpless as him, as terrified and as useless.
The ending is one of the best ever, a symbolic shooting at the history of this war which ends with a meaningful final confrontation with Hitler himself.
An unflinching almost surreal and cruel war film that everybody must see atleast once. It is more a experience than a narrative but a damn good one
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I always remember that when people like the Victims of Communism say Stalin killed a gazillion people, these people are the victims they are talking about; slaughtered like animals by the Nazis
Only time he even fires his gun was that end bit.
Im glad I watched it but its hard to recommend. Come, watch this and be sad and uncomfortable while this fucked up shit plays on the screen - and feel even worse that it all more or less happened all across the eastern front of WW2 replicated over and over, only to be stopped by the heroic red army and partisans and support from American workers making bullets, guns, cars
Yeah I haven’t spoken properly since just finishing it minutes ago. It definitely left me feeling raw
There’s something really poetic/cinematic about the fact that he doesn’t fire his gun until that symbolic moment
It’s a really good movie. The choice of Beethoven’s Lacrimosa as the ending track is one of my favorite decisions in film.
The song joins us for the super long end shot that traverses the forest as the season transitions into winter. The occupation of Belarus started in the summer of 1941. It was lifted in summer of 1944. That’s 3 winters. It’s up to the viewer to decide which snow they are seeing and how many years of brutality remain for the characters. The ending title card comes up reminding you the scale of the atrocity and the haunting voices of the chorus finish their song.
Seen the movie dozens of times, it’s on my top 10 list, it’s an incredible artistic creation and deserves to go in the history books forever.
There is so much in the film that if you picked it as the only movie you ever watched you’d have a better idea of the artistic potential and power of cinema as a form of human expression and creativity than if you picked just about any other goddamn movie. The natural lighting, the audio (deliberately in mono it’s such a ride) the use of camera tricks like the Split Diopter effect that gets used like 7 times its incredible. No wonder the filmmaker said he retired cuz he had done everything he wanted. I believe it.
Incredible film. Watch it at least once.
Come and See is, for me, the perfect horror movie.
I saw it once, and I don’t want to see it again.
The rawness of that film is just… to think about that is just a small representation of what those nazi monsters did. It’s so fucking heavy.
This movie needs to be watched at least once in your life.
I also read “The Unwomanly Face of War” by Svetlana Alexievich last year, and it made me reflect even more on “Come and See”. I highly recommend reading it.
I’ll see if I can find it. Thanks!
a movie you can never forget. the heaviest movie ive ever seen yet its just a glimpse of the brutality of the nazis and how they affected the lives of the unfortunate people in their wake
I think its important to remember that the “Boy” isn’t recruited… he actively wants to join the fight against the Nazis.
However, we are introduced to the barely teenaged character digging through an old battlefield with an equally young friend talking about fighting Nazis not because they’ve lived through Nazi atrocities, not because they have a solid understanding of what is going on politically/militarily, but with the same “I’m gonna be a soldier! It looks cool!” as a child watching a G.I. Joe cartoon.
Ahhh true, he is recruited but not without his own will. He is actively smiling when the soldiers come to his house to take him away
Didn’t seem too bad to me. I just skipped the parts that look scary.
Yeah, exactly. Just watch the TV-PG version, it’s a quick 20 minute coming of age flick! Dunno what everyone else is talking about.
I didn’t want to look at some scenes but didn’t think of skipping as it felt like sacrificing some of the effect of the movie
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
