This film packs just about everything into an Eastern front war film but uses older techniques to put across the disturbance.

Rating: 8/10 (5 June 2007)

Although seemingly a war film, Come and See really presents itself as a drama of sorts centring around one person and their horrific journey through a wartime period. The fact that this protagonist is, indeed, a 'fish out of water' adds to this theory. He doesn't seem to have a particular set mission and once the film gets to its hour and three quarter mark, the only mission aim I could see was: just damn-well survive!
Very rarely do we get to see films about the Second World War, set on the Eastern front and made by the Eastern Europeans themselves. When we do, it would seem; we are royally treated. Back in the 1920s, something known as 'Soviet Montage' was the Soviets finding their film form. This is put across most notably in 'Strike!' and 'Battleship Potemkin'. In Come and See, despite being made in the 1980s, there are numerous Soviet Montage references that proves at least to me that director Elem Klimov knows his stuff. A series of disturbing images is put across to us without much in the way of dialogue but also relying heavily on music of the classical variety  this is Soviet montage and this is what happens during the truly memorable moments in Come and See.
The film begins on a light-hearted note of two children 'playing' wars on a battlefield that has recently been fought for but this is only the hint at what's to come  one of these children is going to wish it had stayed a game. Then, he his taken from his home and tossed into the Eastern front. This event setting up a fascinating twenty-five or so minute sequence set around a woodland base where he meets other soldiers, gets his picture taken and indulges in some good old fashioned propaganda  he also accidentally yet seemingly randomly steps on a nest full of eggs when out on patrol; I feel this is an indication to the death and the crushing of the innocents to come.
The film cleverly moves from one thing to another be it bedded down in a woodland base camp, taking cover in a field during a gun fight between two sides he is, quite literally, stuck in the middle of or perhaps the most famous: stumbling across a small town that the Nazis have targeting for utter eradication. It's no secret that the Germans destroyed villages by killing the inhabitants, destroying the buildings and then burying absolutely everything to cover up evidence and what happens in Come and See is as close to that as I have ever seen in any other film  maybe no other film with a better example even exists.
With regards to the Soviet Montage references, when Come and See was made; Russia as we know it now was still the Soviet Union and its depiction of events is not only shocking and disturbing but also loud and forced upon you  such is war to a young man without too much life experience. From the fact an actual skeleton is dressed up to look like Adolf Hitler; just so it can be blown up again, seeing burnt out corpses lying there to music of some kind to the overuse of faces and peoples reactions in close up and, more importantly, montage format is enough evidence to suggest this is not only a modern, mind numbing war film but also a throwback to the old days of Soviet film-making.
What also works is the constant use of horrible, horrible sound. The loud, disturbing noise the aeroplane makes when it hovers overhead constantly reminds us and the lead character of the first time it happened when bombs were dropped relatively close by; thus rendering him (and us) temporarily deaf. It is a nasty reminder of the psychological effects of war. The way the town is dealt with through suspense and screams is particularly horrible as is the way the Nazis merely leave alá the Vikings did centuries ago. They came, they burnt, they pillaged and then they left  torches aloft just like the Germans in Come and See.
Come and See is not for the feint hearted nor is it for people who aren't heavily into film. At over two hours long, it's difficult to sit through and concentrate on fully all the time but not only this, it presents some of the most disturbing scenes in the eeriest of ways I've ever seen in a war film. Truly memorable film-making.