Come and See

Rating: 5/10 (10 September 2012)

I know most of the titles from the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die pretty well, some have remained in my memory that I have either seen or have been meaning to see and remember the titles, and this Russian / Belarusian film was one of the titles I remember reading and wanted to see. Basically set in 1943, during World War II, this film follows young Belorussian boy Florya Gaishun (Aleksey Kravchenko) who is thrust into the brutal and atrocious world of the war happening. He is forced into joining the fight with the Soviet resistance who are hardly equipped at all and feel hopeless because of this, and going against the savage German forces becomes more dangerous as they invade the various countries. Florya witness terrifying and horrifying situations such as fellow soldiers killed in action, many explosions and all forms of violence, and with all this happening he slowly loses his youthful innocence, and more importantly his mental state. The end sees him truly lose his mind when it all seems to be over for him, having been through all the brutal events, and he simply looks at a photograph of Adolph Hitler, he sees flashes of his rise to power in reverse, and finally having a weapon he attacks this photograph. Also starring Olga Mironova as Glasha, Liubomiras Lauciavicius as Kosach and Vladas Bagdonas. Kravchenko gives a great dark performance as the boy who goes through absolute hell and naturally loses the plot until he is pretty much completely broken down, the film has good use of colour to create mood, there is some impressive camera-work during the battle sequences and travelling through the woods, and the war sequences filled with violence and suspense are suitably gripping, so although there are the odd slow moments and it can be hard to understand all going on, overall it is a hard hitting terrific enough epic drama. It was number 71 on The 100 Greatest War Films, and it was number 21 on Film 4's 50 Films To See Before You Die. Worth watching!