MUBI

When I finally got round to watching this film, was it worth the wait? YES! YES! YES! I could happily (in retrospect) have waited another few years before seeing it. I stayed awake to operate the fast forward. Stilted, slow-moving, annoying camerawork, viciously anti-German, annoying choice of dubbed into American or American language (sic) sub-titles. A shite film albeit with some good crowd scenes dragged out over 2.25 hrs. A bit of skilful editing could have made it into a decent short (10-12 mins).

I think Elem Klimov reached the full climax of cinematic revolution in making this film. Come and See stands with authority with the ability in hypnotizing me with its magical pendulum, it’s really rare I get to experience something like that. One of the aspects that really stands out for me is the sound production, which really enhances everything here to another level (take that scene of Florya going partially deaf or wading through the bogs for eg.). What really got to me and made me think of something other than the film itself was the heading near the ending: “The Nazis burned down 628 Byelorussian villages together with all the people in them.” 628 multiplied by let’s say 100 people per village = 62, 800 people murdered in that random obscure Belohosdkfh area… One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, all the way up to 62 800 people… God, what kind of a sick world have I been born into. LOL Yo… The only thing I hated was the final scene which didn’t really leave me with much hope but rather empty inside, but then again I don’t see how it could’ve ended better after all that took place. Don’t mind. The only thing I do mind is how Klimov decided that “Everything that was possible I felt I had already done,” and didn’t direct any more films. Apparently he’s never heard of evolution.

http://travissaves.blogspot.com/2011/06/come-and-see-probably-one-of-most.html?spref=fb

I’ve never done drugs before in my life (outside of the legal drugs that keep my uncle’s kidney from rejecting my body), so i have no reference to stuff like heroine and cocaine, but still, i can only describe watching Elem Klimov’s Tarkovsky’s inspired masterpiece; ‘Come and See’ as the cinematic equivalent of doing coke & heroine at the same time. The film mixes intensity (cocaine) with a trippy atmosphere (heroine) that gives an unsettling and disoriented feeling that’ll leave you thinking about it long after you’ve watched it (at least that’s how i feel every time i watch it). And what makes the film even more disorienting is its experimental soundtrack that mixes up-beat classic music, random creepy vocal samples and synthesizers. There’s plenty of non-violent (or minimal violent) war films ranging from ‘dr. strangelove’ to ‘overlord’, but ‘Come and See’ might be one of the few great VIOLENT anti-war films around. In ‘Come and See’, 14 year old “Florya” is drafted in to the Russian army during WW2. Whats odd is that he’s actually quite eager to go. After he gets caught in the middle of an air raid, an explosion temporarily deafens him. As the film goes on and our 14 year old protagonist witnesses the horrors of war firsthand (the slaughter of his family and the wrath of the nazi’s to be specific), he slowly loses his mind. Not only does the audience experience war from the perspective of a such a young character, be we also get a non-American/non-Jewish perspective about Nazi’s which isn’t exactly rare, but it isn’t very common for Americans either. There’s so many scenes in the film where you feel like Florya is going to have a nervous breakdown and literally explode. In one scene, made even more intense thanks to the soundtrack, Florya tries his best to suppress the fact that his family has been killed. When he finally comes to accept it, he pretty much loses his mind for a short period of time. And what he experiences and sees in the last 30-40 minutes of the film alone (the nazi’s slaughtering innocent women and children by locking them in a giant barn and setting it on fire) is enough to to drive anyone insane. I’m surprised the young first time lead actor didn’t have a real nervous breakdown playing this part. From never acting in your life, to being cast as the lead in one of the most physically and mentally draining film ever must take a toll on you. In fact, the actor who played Florya stated that when the film was finished, he went back to school with grey hairs. There’s also a lot of crazy rumors surrounding the making of the film like real bullets being used in a gun during one scene and actors literally having to be hypnotized in order to get through the filming of other scenes. I don’t know about that (sounds like a “herzog pulling a gun on klaus kinski”-type rumor), but i imagine the making of this film must have taken a lot out of everyone involved, much like another classic war film did to its cast & crew: ‘Apocolypse Now’. In fact, Elem Klimov didn’t make another film after ‘Come & See’
Tarkovsky’s influence is all over ‘Come and See’. From Florya’s mother’s dramatic plea for him not to join the army (which is right out of the beginning of ‘Stalker’ where we see the main characters wife pleading with him not to leave) to the awesome steady cam style that ‘Come and See’ is shot in which is reminiscent of the camera work in ‘The Mirror’. ‘Come and See’ is just one of the many modern Russian films that proves how influential Andrei Tarkovsky really is (see ‘4’, ‘The Ascent’ or just about anything by Alexander Sokurov for further examples of his influence).
Anyone who reads this blog should know that a good portion of the movies i talk about on here fall in to the “coming of age” genre (the spirit of the beehive, u.s. go home, ratcatcher, george washington, etc). But out of all the films that i just mentioned, ‘Come and See’ is the only coming of age tale where the young main character not only changes internally (like ana in spirit of the beehive or martine in u.s go home), but externally as well. In the short period of time that this film covers, our 14 year old main character goes from looking like a regular young kid at the beginning of the film, to an adult by the very end of the film due to the stress that the war has had on him. He looks like an old man trapped in the body of a teenager equip with wrinkles on his face and disgusting bags under his eyes. It almost looks like a different actor. Through out the film, our young main character witnesses mass murder, rape, goes deaf and finds his entire village murdered. Naturally that’s gonna transform someone, especially someone so young.
And speaking of faces, the many close-up shots of the characters in ‘Come and See’ always express some deep intense agony or some deep polarizing stare directly in to the camera. Part of whats so great about the performances in the film is that the actors don’t always have to rely on words to convey their message. Just a simple look gets the point across in many cases.
The imagery in ‘Come and See’ is pretty unique and kinda random for a war film. In the midst of the all violence and chaos, Klimov makes it a point to focus the camera on random shit like an attractive female Nazi officer eating something very sexually. She seems completely out of place, but the way she looks at the camera kinda hypnotizes the viewer, and you cant help but stare at her (at least i cant). The same thing goes Klimov’s focus on animals through out the film. He makes it a point to show these little animals that have absolutely nothing to do with war, but just like the sexy female nazi officer, it catches our attention. I mean really, how random is it that during a mass murder the camera focuses on a Nazi General having an intimate moment with his pet or a close-up of a cow’s eye rolling around in its head after its been murdered?
And like any war film there’s a lot of disturbing and haunting imagery. But ‘Come and See’ kinda goes a little further than stuff like ‘Saving Private Ryan’ or even ‘Full Metal Jacket’. From the shot of the young Russian girl with blood running down her legs after she’s been raped, or the quick shot of Florya’s entire village stacked up behind his house like pieces of wood after they’ve been killed, and of course the iconic scene of the film where, amidst all the madness, a group of Nazi’s stop to take a picture with a gun (that supposedly had real bullets in it so that the actors would be more tense as the scene was shot) pointed at Florya’s head.

Stunning.

One of those “war movies” that’s not really a war movie so much as a punch to the gut. No scenes of the tough sarge gathering his troops for one last heroic assault here. Instead, we follow the story of a young Belorussian boy, Florya, who joins the local Soviet partisans to fight the invading Nazis. The film is not so much a story as it is a challenge to the audience to literally come and see. The formalistic devices used by Elem Klimov are just brilliant. The characters often stare right into the camera, daring us to continue watching, almost knowing that things are just going to get worse. The sound editing is also amazing, mixing diegetic sounds with Mozart, partisan songs, Velvet Underground-esque droning, and Hitler’s speeches. The sound randomly drops in and out throughout the film, assaulting us with the thought that we are indeed watching a difficult movie which is so much more pleasant than the actual realities of the Nazi occupation.

Cameras also play a key role in the film, always pointing out the “see” in the title. As I mentioned, the actors continually point out the film camera by staring right in to it, but there are also two key scenes which depict both the partisans and the Nazis posing for a picture in an elaborate, highly reflexive set-up. It must be remembered that WWII was one of the first wars that was obsessively filmed and photographed in every aspect, but what was seen in propaganda wasn’t what was seen at the front.

This film also features one of the most breath-taking endings I’ve seen recently. Equal parts cathartic, intense , and unnerving. And our protagonist, Florya, destroys history with the help of Elem Klimov and some clever manipulation of film.

about one month ago ,a friend of mine once asked me," hey, Have you seen Come & See ?" i replied : “no, what is that ?”.“what ?? you never heard of it ?? it’s the best war movies. like, EVER !”.

Since that defining conversation, i am so dying to see this film, which he said will makes Schindler’s List feels like a telettubies movie. And after a somewhat fortunate event (fate, maybe), not long after, another friend of mine ( which,after watching it, gave the same opinion, that this is, the best war movie ever) just got a copy of it. and so i borrowed it.

And yep, the feeling i got after watching it is, more or less, the same. While it is too early to say that this is the Best war movie of all time, but it is definitely, one of the best. now a question raised, how come this film get overlooked by many when there’s a conversation of this genre ?? This is, at least better than Platoon, or Saving Private Ryan. And would be a worthwhile companion for Schindler’s List, for one-two emotional punch.

The biggest strength of this Klimov’s masterpiece is, not the nature of violence depicted on screen. Unlike Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, in which violence are everywhere, and a girl with red dress had to get involved, to get the viewer’s sympathy (and it worked for me), Come and See didn’t need that. The gore are just suggested implicitly. but it worked just the same.

And don’t forget the harrowing sound effect ( especially in the first half of the movies ). These fairly disturbing, yet highly effective sound, is just perfect ! by the time the Mozart piece played out near the end, the chilling sensation of the ugliness of war comes to its full effect. And Thanks to Aleksei Kravchenko’s performance, the impact is, indeed, powerful.

After seeing Come and See I feel that I have to re-evaluate every war film I have ever seen. I liked Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, etc. but never has a war film affected me like this. I’m actually thinking about rewatching all of those films since this film has set a new, unprecedented standard for me. Come and See will literally have a psychological impact on you, wiping away the dirt and tearing straight into your soul. There were moments where I felt like crying because what I was watching was so horrible.

I’m one of those people that, when I watch a film, I imagine myself in the situations presented on screen. I wonder how I would react to those scenarios, how I would go about doing everything. Perhaps that’s the reason why I felt so horrible and loathing because no one would EVER want to undergo what this young boy had to endure. Imagine Tarkovsky’s lamentable Ivan’s Childhood being remade by Sam Peckinpah at his grittiest, most cerebral zeitgeist.

It’s funny, because there is blood spilled on screen, but that’s not what’s so haunting about this picture. It’s the atmosphere that really adds to the degradation of the human psych. Throughout the first half of the film we hear non-diegetic noises in the sound track that can only be summed up as, “some really weird fucking sounds.” Imagine the most haunting track you can from a David Lynch film and multiply that by ten and maybe then you might know what I’m writing about. When the young boy and girl are traveling through the bog and that sound is playing overhead it is absolutely unnerving. I literally felt dirty.

This film shows you the true horrors of war. Whether if it’s from the lone plane flying overhead or the pile of bodies behind the log cabin, all of these scenes are meant to stick in your head forever. I will never forget the infamous scene where the Nazis invade and ransack that poor village . . .

So this isn’t really a review, it’s more of a reaction piece. Needless to say, this is one of the best films I have ever seen, and one of the most scarring. Come and See is an extremely important anti-war film that you should seek out. Go and see Come and See (that was my lame attempt to brighten up this piece).