Beauty & Horror

Rating: 10/10 (26 March 2007)

Come & See is without doubt one of the most beautiful and horrific war films ever mean. It is in many ways a Europeon Apocolpyse Now, just as with that film the central character is as more an observer of the war rather than a participant in it, Come & See's hero, Florya finds a rifle in the films opening scenes, which he carries throughout but only fires in the films final scene, and even then only a picture of Hitler. Floya though is a child, making the film a rite of passage as much as it is a war film. If this film can truly be called such, as it lacks any of the conventions and cliques of any Hollywood war film. In it there is no sense of war being in way heroic or noble. There are no action scenes or fire fights here, the casualties are all unarmed and even the Nazis who die are executed. It, unlike any of Speilbergs films in this genre, offers no rousing speeches at the end to give us some hope.
Some of the scenes, especially the final 'battle,' are hard to watch, horrific in fact, but they all beautifully shoot, making the film mesmerizing as it is shocking.