Running Time: 142 minutes
Directed By: Elem Klimov
Written By: Ales Adamovich, Elem Klimov
Main Cast: Aleksey Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Liubomiras Lauciavicius, Vladas Bagdonas, Juri Lumiste
Click here to view the trailer
HORRIFYING
I know, I know, you're probably asking yourself, "Is he ever going to finish the Hou Hat Trick?". The answer is "yes", but I REALLY needed a break from the Hou films, which is why I slipped a couple of movies in between "A City of Sadness" and the last Hou film, "The Puppet Master".
Tonight (well actually it's morning now) I take a look at a Soviet Union film entitled "Come and See", which takes place in Belorussia during World War II and the occupation of the Nazi regime. The film begins with two boys digging in the dirt, looking for abandoned military rifles. When Flyora (Kravchenko) finds one, he joins the Soviet partisan forces, to the dismay of his mother. He heads off with two partisan troops and settles down in their campground, becoming their laborer, doing all the dirty work around camp. When the partisans move on, Commander Kosach orders Flyora to stay behind at camp, causing Flyora to run off into the forest bawling. In the woods, Flyora encounters Glasha (Mironova), a blonde-haired girl and they take to each other. When the camp is bombed, Flyora and Glasha return to his home, to make sure his mother and sister's are okay. When they arrive there, they find that Flyora's family is gone and probably dead, although Flyora doesn't want to believe that. As they continue to travel, the stumble into a village where they learn of recent attacks on this village and neighboring villages and Flyora comes to the realization that his family is deceased. At this point, Glasha disappears, but Flyora (who is now deaf from the explosions) hitches his wagon to a group of resistance fighters, who scour the countryside in search of food, meeting Germans and German artillery fire along the way.
I really SHOULD HAVE liked this one, but I'll be damned if I didn't. Why should I have liked it? Well, it's visually stunning. I always love when I go to find a few pictures to include here on the blog and my choices are endless. For "Come and See" there were dozens of shots I could have gone with and I found myself in the same position a policeman might find himself in at Dunkin' Donuts...too many choices. The film is an eye-popping movie and just by looking at it, you know that it's an acclaimed film, because it simply looks like one. The horrors that "Come and See" portrays are very real, showing us graphic scenes of war and letting us know that it's not all about heroes, speeches and happy plane rides home, but rather brutality, horror and loss of life. If you observe the expressions and features of Flyora at the beginning of the film and compare them to his look at the end of the film, there is such a blatant transformation, that he's almost unrecognizable. The film doesn't glorify war in the slightest, always keeping it as real as possible.
However, the war film is not my bag, baby and there were times when "Come and See" seemed to drag on forever, especially the end, which I thought would never wrap. The film is also pretty plot-less and the little plot that is there, isn't anything worth writing home about. You all know how I feel about a movie with lack of plot, so it's got that against it too. Those two things combine to give this movie a thumbs down in MY BOOK and recommendation to avoid, unless you're a war movie nut, then by all means give it a shot. Or, if you're just a sucker for a visual feast, this could also be right up your alley. Also, for the record, I am SO SICK of World War II films and that may have been another reason why I just wasn't into this. I bet if you counted, you'd find that at least a quarter of THE BOOK movies are in some way connected to World War II. I'm also sick of Vietnam movies too, for what it's worth.
RATING: 5/10 That's probably too high, but I have a feeling that some of the images that I witnessed in "Come and See" aren't going to wash off easily.
MOVIES WATCHED: 579
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 422
November 17, 2012 1:30am
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