Its hard to figure out exactly what it was like for the Russians during WWII, the Americans and the Allied troops certainly had many casualties, but Russia's topped 20 million, its a hard number to wrap your mind around.
The story is of a young boy of 12 named Ivan who works as a scout for the Soviet troops. He is willing to do just about anything, and doesn't seem to care to much about his own health or well being. He has no one left, all of his family has been killed and he wants revenge. After swimming across a river away from German troops he says he will only talk to the commander of the Soviet troops who found him in the water. They of course don't take him seriously until they actually call the HQ like he had asked and find out that he is actually a VIP. The rest of the movie involves Ivan and the other troops trying to fill their time as the German offensive approaches, they eventually decide they have to get some Soviet troops bodies across the river to their side. The Germans had caught them and hung them off a tree in view of the Soviets.
Ivan is told he is being sent to the rear to go to military school. But before they do that he wants to help once more, in one last mission on the opposite shore. The thing that makes this movie work for me as much as it did is the outstanding cinematography of it, as well as the bold and at times risky lighting choices. Its not exactly film noir, but it has many of the same attributes, but is distinctly Russian. As much as I might respect film noir, there is a certain animosity from it as well, and what I mean is....I'm supposed to pity the French and the Italians here, which I do in a way, but they also did some terrible things during the war.
The Soviets certainly did some horrible things after the war, I'm not going soft on them, but I think I feel much closer to these characters who are fighting in this, as opposed to the post whinings of the French who collaborated with the Nazis.
I can see a lot of influence coming out of this in other movies based on the imagery which is incredible, I wish I could describe it, but its just to dense and complicated. I suppose Ill try. There are dirty and muddy rivers, the trucks cant even drive on the roads practically, they are so thick with mud and water. Parts of the countryside are just always smoking, there are vast tracts of land that the only thing that remains is the chimneys of the houses that were once there, the houses have burned. Other than some thin birch trees there is little other life anywhere but man. Every thing about this place feels dead and yet still menacing. The lighting is hard and all contrast, the characters faces are obscured, or they walk in and out of the light, or even disappear completely, and all we see is a hand, or a knife, or legs.
Its an interesting depiction of the war from the Russians POV, and says a lot about them as a people and their feelings about the war, art, and the Germans place in the world, as well as their own. If you like movies that look incredible and have interesting images then this is worth a viewing. My only complaint is that as a Russian I don't quite get it like they would, there were and will be things that allude me about it because its a cultural time capsule and I will never experience WWII and never be Russian. 8/10 stars.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Starring: Nikolay Burlyaev, Valentin Zubkov, Yevgeni Zharikov, Stepan Krylov, Nikolai Grinko, Valentina Malyavina
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