Harvest your serotonin prior to watching this film.

Rating: 10/10 (6 June 2010)

Even after I watched this film I continuously asked myself why "Come and See" was the chosen title for this powerful film from the Post Soviet Era. A harsh yet comedic depiction of communism, it was one of the films that came out of its tin can after censorship. It's no wonder that it premiered at the 1987 Moscow International Film Festival, one of 25 films shown for the first time from that era. I love how this movie tastes and smells and sounds and feels and truly moves you from your seat. In the dire moments of the film I caught myself almost swatting away the flies; Elem Klimov truly puts you in the shoes of various characters. The close attention to detail, utilizing all five of the audience's senses, made a tremendous impact in the outcome. It dug that knife so much deeper when we sat aghast and in horror at the fate of each character. The image of Hitler as a child that sunk into my thoughts and resonated into my mind; I remembered the comment an SS Officer had made about Russians and how the so-called unraveling began with the children. I immediately saw the correlation between the two, somewhat agreeing with what he was saying but in the completely opposite direction. To be as rotten as Hitler I truly believe that no amount of life suffering could have amounted to justify genocide. Everyone has troubles and lament in one way or another; Hitler is a perfect example of how bad seeds start as kids. What I had trouble recognizing was the immense disdain that previously discussed SS Officer had for communism. The thread that conversation had originally sparked from stemmed from the manipulation of asking the adults to leave all children in the barn, unknowingly to be burned to cinder. Only a monster would be able to do such a haunting and sinister act, thus why analyzing any SS Officer and Hitler himself would be as progressive as running in circles. I feel the most pivotal moment for Florya in the entire film, aside from shooting the picture of Hitler, was when he entered a reenactment of what he missed in his hometown into the second village. He was an outsider, a participant who outwardly glanced at the slaughter. It was almost as if the village was composed of sheep versus humans, constantly catering to the Germans every step of the way. It was in this moment Florya truly realized the grand scheme of the situation and that it was on a massive scale. Truly inspiring. I went from hating war post-"Come and See" to making a beeline to the WW2 section in the library.