A Soviet Perspective of World War II

Rating: 8/10 (29 July 2013)

After finding an old rifle, a young boy joins the Soviet Army and experiences the horrors of World War II.
Roger Ebert called this film "one of the most devastating films ever about anything, and in it, the survivors must envy the dead... The film depicts brutality and is occasionally very realistic, but there's an overlay of muted nightmarish exaggeration... It must unfold as a surprise for you. It pretends to roll back history. You will see how. It is unutterably depressing, because history can never undo itself, and is with us forever."
That probably sums it up. This could be considered one of the greatest war films of all time, or at the very least one of the greatest World War II films of all time. The story is gruesome and realistic, and all the more terrifying for focusing on two children rather than the world of the adults. The contrast between "playing war" and actually taking part in one is so strong that it may have us wondering why we "play" such games at all...