Comic Relief in an Uncomfortable Situation

Rating: 7/10 (4 June 2012)

I dislike gratuitous violence, loud screeching noises, uncomfortable scenarios and images of Hitler. However, the way the the movie, Come and See portrays these things is surprisingly tasteful. Taking on such content is risky because if the viewer cannot handle the content, they will not be able to appreciate the essence of the director's interpretation of said content.
I compare this film to the movie, Schindler's List in the way that it wrenched at my guts and did not let go for a sustained period of time. In Schindler's List, Spielberg used violence in such a manner that it was not difficult to endure. Instead the context of the violence was the disturbing part. The viewer has the power to differentiate between reality and what was going on in the movie. This was not the case in Come and See. Both the violence and the story were disturbing and captivating giving it a potent blend of horribleness. I felt sick and intrigued at the same time while watching this cinematographic work. There were some points in the movie were the director did allow a quick breathe of musty air to allow you to keep going.
One example of these quick breaths was a certain scene which I found gave the piece a dark sort of comic relief. It was when they built with mud and excrement a puppet Hitler. By giving this crude inanimate representation a ventriloquist's voice, it showed that even an object formed from the grotesque, compared to the content of the movie could appear light-hearted and comical in the eyes of the beholder.