The most realistic WWII film ever

Rating: 10/10 (3 August 2009)

"Come and See"(Idi i Smotri) is a magnificent film by Russian filmmaker Klimov made during the Cold War. It tells the story of a young Byelorussian lad called Florya who decides to join the rebels fighting against the Nazis during WWII. The day he arrives to the camp, situated in the middle of a forest, it is bombed and he, along a girl named Glasha miraculously manage to survive. Right after the bombing, Klimov (who uses Eisenstein like cuts in this scene) sucks the audience into the story, taking them inside Florya's head, hearing, experiencing his suffering and his descent into madness.
It is not a movie for the weak of heart. We see Florya experience in a couple of days what most people never go through in their whole lives: surviving a bombing, being shot at, seeing an entire town burned alive, seeing a woman who looks like Glasha raped (the most shocking image of the whole film, I literally had to look away) and finding his own family dead. That is made evident by his face at the end of the film where he looks more like a 60 year old than the young man he was at the beginning. That final scene where he finally shots the picture of Hitler with the rifle he has been carrying around for the entire movie while Mozart's Requiem plays and we see Hitler's life depicted in images going backwards until his birth is one of the best scenes in film history.
What also makes this movie great and different from WWII movies is that the 5 senses are at play, including that of smell, which is present when Florya and Glasha drag through the mud when escaping Florya's village. The techniques shown here have been reproduced many times in Hollywood WWII movies like Saving Private Ryan and makes, between other things, "Come and See" is a must see film for anyone who enjoys war movies, but remember, be ready to be tortured for the 2 and a half hours the film lasts, even more, you won't be able to sleep that same night, I know I didn't.