Ruthless

Rating: 10/10 (3 December 2016)

A Soviet drama war film directed by Elem Klimov, Come and See is considered as one of the best war films ever made. Its ruthless depiction of the human actions in WW2 makes it one of the strongest anti-war anti-fascist (as Klimov said he wanted it to be) films in cinema history. In many scenes you get the feeling that Klimov is trying to say that sometimes you're better off dead.. the horrors of war are unbearable.
The film opens with an ambiguous scene of a Belarusian young boy digging for something.. we know after a while that he is searching for a rifle to join the resistance against the Nazis. He then starts to witness the horrors and tragedies of war starting from the smallest incidents (such as having to switch his new shoes to old ruined ones) all the way to the massacres committed by the Nazi soldiers in Belarus.
The film's accuracy in depicting what really happened in that era (illuminating the Belarusian tragedy rarely shown) is one of its most important features.. and adding to its realism the surrealistic approach used by Klimov only makes it a piece of art. The two approaches are blended in a way that evokes intensity and emotions and masterfully displays the absurdity of human actions during war. The score also is used amazingly in a way to suit the tragic story. The animals' noises, dull hums, war sounds, classical music are all mixed together drawing more and more intensity. In an early scene the protagonist goes deaf leaving us to hear what he hears from noises (strengthening the disturbing atmosphere, especially that in this period he discovers what happened to his family - where he starts acting in a sort of denial).
The main subject of the film is the cottage scene in the village "Perekhody" where the Nazi soldiers put all the villagers in the cottage and burn it. Then they start shooting it while it is burning (showing excessive brutality or maybe absurdity). Before burning it they allow some to flee the cottage but without the children (in the execution scene a Nazi soldier explains the reason - he did not want this inferior race to continue!) and so the child of a young mother that tried to run away with him was taken from her and thrown again into the cottage and she was later raped (her screams were heard but nothing was shown). The protagonist was also allowed to flee and seemed to age throughout the film (pointing out how war kills innocence and how horrifying it is). The main character was a success in this film where the viewer can easily get emotionally attached to the terrified wandering kid.
The symbolic and memorable scenes in the film are many. A beautiful German soldier is seen lustily sucking food (linking lust to anger and war? or mocking the "superior Aryan race"?) and after few scenes she is shown dead with one of her breasts visible. Another scene is the protagonist stepping on a bird's nest killing her babies still in eggs (implying that war gives birth to suffering - or that it kills innocence).. also the death of the cow (some say that Klimov was trying to show that death is sometimes incomprehensible).. the cruel Nazi commander with his unpleasant pet.. the raped young mother with her legs covered with blood and playing on a harmonica a dull and annoying music.. and above all the old peasant that was thrown out while still laying on her bed (the close ups on her face were so emotional and also symbolic). In fact all the close ups from the beginning to the end help the viewer to feel the tragedy and connect with the terrified characters.
The German soldiers responsible for the burning of the cottage are then executed.. some tried to burn them to avenge the villagers but few peasants shot them quickly. The scene leaves a lot to interpret but you can feel that even though justice was obtained, nothing could really take back what happened.
The best is left to the end where the protagonist for the "first time" uses his rifle only to shoot Hitler's picture thrown in mud.. and each shot inter-cut with an archival footage of Hitler that is moving backwards. At last when the archival footage comes to a scene where he (Hitler) is a baby in his mother's arms the protagonist could no longer shoot the rifle! The film then plays a classical music with the resistance going into the woods (implying that there is still hope) and the film ends with a shot of the sky. Some assume that the director is questioning God but since the title carries a name from the book of revelation this interpretation does not seem right.. the scene is more likely to be spiritual.
A masterpiece from a director that never made any film after it claiming that he did everything he could in that film (and without using even professional actors!)