Come and See

Rating:
Summary: Excellent account of WWII on the Eastern Front . . .
Review: 4.5 stars. This film is shocking in many ways. The only negative aspect is that for the first half of the film I was battling a serious case of culture-shock. I raised my eyebrows in consternation more than once. However, by the end of the film I was stunned. There are some graphic and intense sequences, many of which linger long after the film is over. I just finished watching it for the first time and I am overwhelmed and haunted by the horrifying images I have seen. Some of the scenes of Nazi brutality are unnerving and evil; their debauchery and slaughter are unforgivable. Seriously, there are scenes in this film I have never seen before and will probably never see in any future films. The camera work is amazing, being a worthy film for study by any aspiring cinematographer, and the direction is outstanding. The main reason I watch foreign films is that I hope to see and experience something I never have. This is one of those experiences. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Shocking.
Review: 4.5 stars. This film is shocking in many ways. The only negative aspect is that for the first half of the film I was battling a serious case of culture-shock. I raised my eyebrows in consternation more than once. However, by the end of the film I was stunned. There are some graphic and intense sequences, many of which linger long after the film is over. I just finished watching it for the first time and I am overwhelmed and haunted by the horrifying images I have seen. Some of the scenes of Nazi brutality are unnerving and evil; their debauchery and slaughter are unforgivable. Seriously, there are scenes in this film I have never seen before and will probably never see in any future films. The camera work is amazing, being a worthy film for study by any aspiring cinematographer, and the direction is outstanding. The main reason I watch foreign films is that I hope to see and experience something I never have. This is one of those experiences. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent account of WWII on the Eastern Front . . .
Review: 4.5 Stars

Although initially sceptical regarding this movie's historical accuracy as it was a Soviet era production, after watching it I thought this film to be a very honest and sobering portrayal of the war on the Eastern Front, between Hitler's Germany and the Soviet Union during WWII. The movie depicts an often overlooked facet of the war, specifically the activites of the SS "Einsatzgruppen," or special action police units, whose task was to liquidate Jews, communists, and any potential threats to the Nazi regime behind the front lines of the actual fighting. These SS police units travelled behind the army's advance, and in addition to conducting mass executions of Jews and suspected communists, were also employed to "pacify" occupied regions that were suspected of taking part in, or aiding, the growing underground resistance. The activites of such an SS unit provides the background to the movie as the main character, a young teenage boy, loses his parents and survives the razing of a Russian village - a scene quite unpleasant to watch, yet very well depicted and brutal in its realism. Of mention was the role played by local Russian militia in carrying out these executions and "reprisal" raids - as this is a Soviet film, and was subject to state oversight, I was surprised that such unpleasant reminders of Russian collaboration were incorporated. Large numbers of volunteers from the occupied territories were accomplices to the SS in their cleansing actions, a fact documented in this movie.

"Come and See" also provides an interesting glimpse into the role and activities of the Soviet partisans, the insurgent groups fighting the Nazi occupation behind the front. Furthermore, the suffering and harsh conditions endured by Russian civilians living under Nazi occupation is not lost upon the viewer. Although there are definitely stark Good vs. Evil undertones throughout the film (all Germans are essentially portrayed as cold, sadistic, Nazi killers - the Soviet partisans as heroic, beleaguered freedom-fighters), it must be remembered that this movie offers a mere snapshot of the war at its most horrifying level. SS actions such as the ones depicted were commonplace on the Eastern Front - as was the willing, and often enthusiastic participation of anti-Soviet / anti-Semitic elements in the USSR, whom the Nazis depended on for support.

Excellent camera work and photography, in my opinion the quality of filmmaking rivals the most recent Hollywood productions. This film is highly recommended to those interested in watching an accurate account of World War II in the eastern theater, and the war as experienced by the Soviet population.

Rating:
Summary: DVD Technical Considerations
Review: Equally important to me in reading reviews about a film are the technical aspects/production values and quality of the DVD itself, particularly re-releases of older films. From what I've read about the overall DVD quality of "Come and See" there is controversy, to say the least.

My intent here is to delineate the technical aspects of the current DVD issue and leave prophetic wisdom and insite of the film to other eager reviewers. But I will say that as a long-time war film fan I found "Come and See" easily one of the best with some of the most stunning visuals ever committed to film. If you've seen and appreciated such films as The Winter War, Das Boot, Stalingrad or Die Brucke (The Bridge) you should be quite pleased with this effort.

The current DVD package is no longer two DVDs, but one (thankfully) and contains all 142 uninterrupted minutes of the original film. The special features are scant and consist of a theatrical trailer with no oral commentary and a written appreciation of the film by Sean Penn.

The movie is full frame (aspect ratio 1.33:1) and NOT in original widescreen. It is in Russian with English subtitles giving the viewer adequate time to read each line. Each chapter is delineated on your DVD player, so you can stop anywhere you like and pick up where you left off later. I have a decent home theatre system and found the picture quality very good and likely similar to that which was released for theatres. The audio is in stereo and the sound quality is good and on a par for the era in which it was produced.

The DVD is still produced by Kino Video, issued in a hard case and contains the same art cover and interesting film descriptions as the former two DVD version.

In summation, a monumental motion picture (and a favorite of mine) and top quality production, not withstanding modest extra features.

Rating:
Summary: The most realistic war movie ever seen!
Review: In my life I have experienced, first hand, the brutalities of war and have also seen many motion pictures that dipict what war might have been like. The advantage of seeing films that are produced and made outside of Hollywood gives a person like myself the ideas and concepts of what other countries feel about making war movies. You realize that to every war there is at least another story and another point of view. It is left up to the one that holds witness to such accounts to fathom what is real, unreal, and what is wrong and right. In all the war movies that I have ever seen, this one is the most realistic, most unbelievable, and most haunting I have ever experienced. This movie allows the viewer to feel the pain that is captured on the lense. Many scenes are shot with no dialouge but the viewer knows exactly what is going on and what every actor feels. The pain, the torment, the suffering that is filmed is also felt by the viewer. The first time I viewed this movie, there was one scene I had to fast-forward because it was too agonizing to watch in its entirety. Make no mistake, this film will be one of the most memerable war movies that you will ever see. You will want to see over and over again until you can no longer take the suffering of war and all that comes from it.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific film about a forgotten war
Review: Klimov paints an unforgettable picture of the Eastern Front and the terrible suffering of the Soviet people at the hands of the savage Nazi soldiers. Building his story around a young boy who is uprooted from his family in order to follow the partizans, he presents all the brutality and the horror of the village destruction strategy that Wehrmacht adopted in the occupied territories. Klimov is able to tell his story in a poetical way not only by pictures and dialogues but also by music themes as happens near the beginning of the film with the partisans posing for a photo, accompanied by the famous "Song of the Great Patriotic War" in a short but magestic performance. This is one of the best war films I have ever seen, albeit it doesn't have any battle scenes at all. The real protagonist here is the drama of the innocents and the horror of blind violence.

Rating:
Summary: You will think about this movie for days
Review: Ok, I have never written a review for a movie but I am a military history buff that enjoys reading about the lesser known war topics. I stumbled across this movie a few weeks ago on Amazon and read some reviews that were critical of the production quality on DVD but I must say that this version by Kino has outstanding production quality and it's on 1 DVD so I assume that this is a new DVD production. The movie was extremely griping and thoughtful and basically follows the life of a young Russian teen boy through some very difficult trials behind German lines in Russia. You follow his life through joining the partisans but the movie is primarily an individual self-discovery of the horrors of war for this teen boy since he quickly becomes separated from the partisan group. If you want a movie like "A Bridge to Far", do not buy this one; however, if you want a slice of life, emotionally intense, movie then this one is for you. Being an American, I think if you could imagine that Kansas had been overrun by the Nazi-like terror and you were a young teen boy living through it, this movie could be your life adventures. Finally, after reading the reviews I was afraid that this movie would be a blood and gore movie but in my opinion there is little blood and gore but it is very emotionally intense.

Rating:
Summary: Brutally frank
Review: The first half of this movie is the most honest and realistic movie interpretation of the horrors of war i have ever seen. The poverty of the main protagonist and his small familly increases our awareness of their vulnerability and so heightens the horror when his familly are butchered. The sound effects are truly chilling, a rising insectile noise as the young man is confronted by the spectacle of horror gives the impression of growing insanity and pain beyond endurance. The director certainly got this all absolutely correct. Why have i spent so long describing this scene?

The scene accurately conveys the true horror of war, in which ordinary people are subjected to limitless cruelty and pain, so few movies actually do that (Hollywood almost never does it, Platoon and Casualties of War excepted), yet here we have a soviet era Russian movie that does. As we live in an age in which war atrocities become ever more mundane the importance of such art is clear. I approve of the mechanism the director uses which is to encourage us to empathise with a single human victim of the war to a high degree (instead of showing many victims treated shallowly).

The tension in the movie is extreme and the small respite provided through occasional dashes of humor (the Hitler head sculpture scene in particular) appear ghastly in places, someone here suggests that the movie becomes slightly 'biased' towards the end and i agree with them, there is a scene in which a nazi officer explains calmly (even as he is about to be immolated for his crimes) why he believes his extermination policies are correct as the Russians are sub-human which seemed just a little Hokey to me. Russian forces committed a good deal of atrocities during the war also, and the portrayal of them here is a little too meek. Surely the important point the director should have been trying to convey is that war brings out the savage in all regardless of uniform provided the circumstances are there to let the savage grow, instead of suggesting there was something uniquely inhumane about nazis or Germans. I approved of the ending of the film in which the boy is transformed by his experiences into a character burning with bottomless hate and rage.

Rating:
Summary: SO BRILLIANT NOT EVEN A MEDIOCRE DVD CAN DETER
Review: This film made under the old Soviet cinema system back in 1985 makes SCHINDLER and RYAN seems like THREE MEN AND A BABY!!

TOTAL GENIUS.

I do however find the other reviewer's remarks so typical of the American mind when he asks reviewers to imagine a fictional world where Kansas is over-run by Nazi terror. To which I have two responses. The American Indian tribes of Kansas don't have to imagine a fictional senario they lived it at the hands
of Washingtonian Manifest Destiny...same difference.

From the early stages of this film I began to imagine a remake of this movie set in Vietnam during the American invasion and genocidal conquest of Indochina. What the German Nazis did and are showing doing in BeloRussia in this film you Americans did two decades later in Vietnam. Near the end of the film a title comes on the screen saying that 628 villages were burnt to the ground along with their inhabitants. Well in South Vietnam the portion of Vietnam the USA was claiming to the world it was defending from Northern commie aggression, 12000 out of the 15000 hamlets were burnt to the ground by the American army with murders and rapes committed by Americans in the 100's of thousands. In Saigon there was a CIA administered interrogation prison where 50,000 people were torture. In the end 4 million Indochinese were murdered by the USA. The parallels between the two experiences are undeniable.

This brilliant piece of Soviet era cinema contains none of the Hollywood niceities that we are all programed to expect from movies. This is the real deal and it is IN YA FACE. If you think you can handle it BUY IT!

Howard S Marks

Rating:
Summary: Hey Dipsh*t. Yes, you Mr. Howard Marks
Review: This forum is not the place for your anti-American propaganda bullsh*t. This forum is for the discussion of the film, "Idi i Smotri" (Come and See).

You sit in you high and mighty UK and bash the US while conveniently leaving out the 3 centuries or so of oppression and genocide comitted BY YOUR BRITISH EMPIRE all over the globe.

Half of my family is from Russia, were this film is set; and I can tell you that we are happy to live in a country such a America. Is America's past perfect? Absolutely not. But neither is England's, Germany's, Russia, France, Japan, China, etc...

Get off your high horse and take a deep breath of the fresh free air- which is brought to you via hundreds of thousands of dead American GI's thoughout two world wars.