Come and See | Aleksei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova

Come and See | Aleksei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova | Nightmare come true

DVDs:

Come and See

	Come and See Aleksei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova Kino Video, 2003 average customer review:based on 105 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

what can happen

I wouldn't recommend this film to overly sensitive people. It is a grimly realistic portrayal of what can happen, and history tells us has happened, when people are given license and encouragement to indulge their most cruel, brutish impulses. The director has,to my mind, succeeded brilliantly in showing the murderous orgy which resulted when the constraints of culture and civilization were removed. Rather than entertainment, watching this film is an experience, reminiscent of the nightmare visions of Bosch and Brueghel. As a counterpoint to the barbarity we are shown the determination of the invaded people not to be trodden underfoot. Come and See is surely a tribute to the strength of the human will to survive even under these monstrous circumstances.

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Nightmare come true

I bought a copy of "Come and See'', sight unseen, largely based on the many favorable reviews on this site. I am an avid reader of military history of all ages, and have a growing collection of DVDs on the subject of war- including documentaries, history-based dramas, and one other category, to which "Come and See" perhaps best belongs: apocalyptic, or perhaps, cautionary.

Art, including movie-making, might have several purposes: to entertain, to inform, and sometimes simply to just express the artists' vision.....I did not view "Come and See" with any pre-conceived idea of what to expect; indeed, I had no idea other than a bare-bones understanding that the subject was an historical event: the Belarus massacres of WWII. My historical background for that was rather limited- largely from Martin Gilbert's exhaustive Holocaust history, which detailed many of the lesser-known, small village massacres throughout Poland and Western Russia, before the advent of the mass extermination camps.

This movie, to me, made no sense- and particularly because of that, it succeeds in it's likely intent. This is not entertainment, to be sure, and not merely a documentary (though many real-life images of the times are shown at the end of the film).....I'd best call it a successful attempt to create a nightmare on film. A real event, but so unimaginable in it's details that, to portray it to a comfortable modern audience, years after the fact, and likely mostly strangers to any such similar events, must necessarily turn out to be strange, disjointed, at times drearily slow, and then at once horrifyingly brief. In short, all the elements of a nightmare come true.
The cinematography is excellent, both in capturing the dreariness of the Russian landscape and also the lush, forboding darkness of the Russian forests, where much of the action takes place.
The sound is unique, but in a way that many may find simply annoying, if not otherwise drawn into the nightmare that is unfolding. A shell burst renders the young Russian protagonist partially deaf early on in the film, and much of the rest of the movie is heard through his muffled, ringing ears. The relentless nature of this bizarre effect adds a great deal to the uneasiness one feels throughout this film: some will likely just find it annoying, but I rather imagine it was at least that, for the protagonist. There are long stretches in the movie where there is no dialogue at all, just this everpresent background noise. It bothered me a lot, actually- which was only a problem for me till I figured out that it was intended to do just that.
The actors will all be unknown to the American viewer, of course, and will also be disappointing for the viewer expecting dramatic speeches at well-timed interludes, that all make perfect sense in the context of a neat, orderly chain of events. But again, this is a nightmare, and the dialogue is therefore episodic, often non-sensical, and most of the acting is done without words: the close-up shots of the character's faces throughout this film are riveting, and convey personal (and universal) anguish better than any well-written speech might have done. Think about voices that flit in and out of any nightmare you have had, and you'll see what I mean: non-sensical, random, altogether disturbing.....except that in a nightmare you trust that you'll eventually wake, and it will all be over. But in "Come and See", the nightmare went on and on.....

I'm writing this review after viewing the movie for the first time, which arguably is not the best measure of any film. I suspect that with repeated viewings, I will find things that still just annoy me, but also expect that there will be more that I will appreciate as well. I think it's a bit simplistic to give this movie a one-star rating, just as it is a bit much to give it 5 stars.

Maybe you just need to be "in the mood" to appreciate this film, but for those who can stand it, it's worth viewing at least once.

"I am the man who looked for peace and found
My own eyes barbed.
I am the man who groped for words and found
An arrow in my hand.
I am the builder whose firm walls surround
A slipping land.
When I grow sick or mad
Mock me not nor chain me:
When I reach for the wind
Cast me not down:
Though my face is a burnt book
And a wasted town. "

Sidney Keyes

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Interesting viewpoint

This is an interesting film about a subject of which I have very little knowledge. The story is told through the eyes of a 13 year old boy pressed into the service of partisan rebels during German occupied Belarus during WW2. THe actor who plays the boy does very well, particularly considering he had never previously acted. The story is sad, depressing, but utterly realistic. War sucks, and this film gives ample reason why that is true. Horrid scenes of German deprivation close the movie as they plunder a village and bring horror to its inhabitants.

Come and See comes with subtitles, though the copy I watched was over-dubbed in English. The subtitles and the over-dubbed English often didn't match, but it wasn't a big deal. I've seen where this film is touted as the greatest war movie ever made. I wouldn't go that far, but it is very good, very brutal, and quite realistic. I highly recommend it to those who enjoy war films. While it is often very violent, there is no real in your face violence, most of it is implied.

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