"...and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, "Come and see!"

Rating: 9/10 (12 October 2010)

Come And See is a one-of-a-kind film. It's a film that shows the brutality and horror of war without hesitation. Its reputation has grown considerably since its release, mostly by word of mouth. The film was even included in Channel 4's list of 50 Films to See Before You Die. Come And See is a psychological horror drama about and occurring during the Nazi German occupation of the Belarussian SSR, in 1943.
The film has to be seen, that's all there is to it. There is no other anti-war film as effective as this one. Taken together, it's a series of horrifying events in which Florya (Aleksei Kravchenko) gets involved in. What sets these scenes apart from, for example Hollywood films, is that they realistically portray what it would have been like to live in fear during the total war in the USSR. For example, in one scene German soldiers parachute into a forest during sunset. Florya and a girl his age are there too. They hide, observing the soldiers. The soldiers pass, some distance away. There is some firing. Bullets hit trees, splinters fly. The soldiers' faces can't be seen. Florya and the girl are obviously terrified. The soldiers are like an unstoppable force which will devour them if it sees them. Music is used to great effect too. But it's not uplifting music (though there is a scene where partisans listen to Sacred War) or horror movie music. It's rhythmically amorphous mostly, and it's the sort of sounds you may hear when you're in awe or when you're preoccupied with something and can't hear what else is going on around you.
The Red Army isn't present in the film. Partisans are present sometimes. Come And See is no documentary film. I should note that some people may find it strange or hard to watch, but it leads to a finale that is both awesome and disturbing. The war that Adolf Hitler began in Russia, a war of brutality and no consideration for human life, is shown in all its effects in the Belarussian countryside. In the end it's shown that all this hate and suffering was begun by a man who was once a boy, a boy with a mother. What's interesting is how different Come And See is from other Soviet films. Soviet films are typically about bravery and liberation, but Come And See is clearly anti-war though some war images in the film are some of the most impressive I have ever seen. Elem Klimov, the director, lived through the World War II, and this one film he made clearly shows that there's more to war than soldiers fighting. Come And See is a masterpiece. It's also one of the great war films.