Bleak and Enlightening

Rating: Null/10 (27 July 2012)

Of all the films I've seen throughout my life, Elem Klimov's Come and See is indeed among the bleakest I have ever experienced. Taking place during World War II, the film focuses on a Bellorussian boy named Flyora, who wishes to join the partisans' fight against the Nazis. Among the things that impressed about this film was the fact that it shows Flyora developing from a naÃ¯ve young boy, eager to fight in something as glorious-sounding as war, to, in spite of not seeing much combat, a veteran who may not be eager to fight but realizes why he must. In the span of the film's run-time, you can see the aftermaths he encounters take a toll on his innocence, as the life gradually appears to drain from his eyes, until the end where they seem almost cold with hatred, pain, and sorrow. It is a dark coming-of-age tale that sends the message of how war is not something glorious, but rather, it is something that takes from you. It may even force you to see yourself and your allies sink to the levels of your enemies. And on a more depressing note, the ending shot leaves me with the impression that, while the battles we fight may matter now, time and nature will eventually make these struggles irrelevant, and forgotten.