It might ruin other movies for you

Rating: 10/10 (29 August 2016)

Before watching Come and See, I read somewhere that it was the greatest war film ever made. I thought that this bold claim of greatness surely had to be an exaggeration. It was not. Technically, I supposed I haven't seen every war film, so I can't say that for sure, but it is without a doubt the best war film this boy has ever had the pleasure of watching.
This movie is so good because it feels very real. It's gritty and raw, and for those reasons it's a really great experience. There is none of the sappy sentimentality or symbolism that seem to be found in so many other films, even in other war films. As a matter of fact, after watching Come and See, I was forced to reevaluate many of my other favorite films that I had always thought did a good job of portraying realism on the screen. It was only upon seeing this film that I realized that, in comparison, none of the others had gotten it right. Come and See shows the chaos and misery of war in a straightforward, unadulterated manner, leaving its viewers to take from it what they will. Still, the images on the screen are so haunting and powerful that there is likely only one conclusion anyone can draw.
From the very first scene, everything feels very real. The actors used weren't professionals. They're not beautiful people; they're ugly and they're dirty and they're real, with crooked eyes and bald spots and missing teeth. They might be real farmers and soldiers and partisans, for all we can tell.
In one memorable scene, the lead character and his albino girlfriend make their way through a muddy bog. They sink deeper and deeper, get mud in their hair, and struggle to keep their heads above the surface. At one point I felt sure they were not going to make it. It's a very tense scene. I held my breath and waited for the camera to pan away or cut to a different angle. It did not. It stayed on them for what felt like several minutes. It was agonizing for the viewer, just as it was for the characters and must have been for the actors as well. But the agony was a good thing, because the pure intensity of it all made the experience so much better. It wasn't fake, the way we know it is in most other movies. It was so real that I could almost smell it. It couldn't have been safe for the actors, but that made the viewing experience so much more genuine.
Similarly, in the battle scenes, we can tell that the conditions were unsafe and the actors were surely at risk. Real explosions send entire tree trunks flying right past the actors' heads. The characters flee the chaos, and the ground where they'd been standing seconds earlier explodes. Real bullets fly over their heads. We see real fear in their eyes.
There's an effect used in the film in which several nearby explosions mess with the main character's hearing. The background sounds are muted and all we hear is an annoying, high-pitched ringing sound. This is similar to the effect used famously in Saving Private Ryan—which I believe borrowed it from this film—and countless others since then. Unlike in Saving Private Ryan, however, the ringing here is actually extremely disconcerting and agonizing. We want it to stop, just like the character must want it to stop. It's disorienting. It feels real. It's not polished and toned down to make for a better cinematic experience. It's loud and obnoxious, just as it should be, and that's what makes for a better experience.
The movie started out so strong and powerful that I kept waiting for it to fall on its face and get worse. I felt it couldn't sustain the momentum, but I was proved wrong when it just kept getting better and more intriguing, scene after scene, right up until the climax.
The story, while straightforward, feels a bit confusing at first, because it's not what we're used to. It does away with the symbolism and metaphors that are so prevalent in many films. That's not to say that there's not a clear message here; there is. And yes, certain things may be symbols—the way things are naturally in real life—but there is no symbolism forced upon us. The main character's transformation may come to represent the transformation of his people or the rain-drenched stork my represent whatever and blah blah blah, but not because the filmmakers chose to squeeze that into the story, but because that's what happened in the natural course of things, in the story just as easily as it may have in real life.
When the film was being made, the filmmakers predicted it would be a difficult film for people to watch. They knew there was a chance that no one would want to see it. It wasn't meant to be enjoyable. But it was extremely enjoyable, at least for me. The story isn't wrapped up neatly and doesn't give the characters any poetic justice; by attempting to tell a real story, the filmmakers opened up so many more possibilities and made a film that is completely honest and unpredictable. The main character goes from one chaotic battlefield to the next, never knowing what will happen. Likewise, the viewers never know what's coming and that makes the movie extremely fun and exciting to watch.
Come and See is not a perfect film, however. The acting is bad in spots, especially toward the beginning, and some of the makeup is shoddy. The final scene is a bit unconvincing and does perhaps try too hard to drive the film's message home. Despite these flaws, however, Come and See still does a much better job than almost every other film. It's a unique and wonderful experience and I wish there were more like it.